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I Did Not Believe That A Cause Which Stood For A Beautiful Ideal, For Anarchism, For Release And Freedom From Convention And Prejudice, Should Demand The Denial Of Life And Joy. I Insisted That Our Cause Could Not Expect Me To Become A Nun And That The Movement Would Not Be Turned Into A Cloister. If It Meant That, I Did Not Want It.

-Emma Goldman

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I Did Not Believe

Emma Goldman

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I Did Not Believe That A Cause Which Stood For A Beautiful Ideal, For Anarchism, For Release And Freedom From Convention And Prejudice, Should Demand The Denial Of Life And Joy. I Insisted That Our Cause Could Not Expect Me To Become A Nun And That The Movement Would Not Be Turned Into A Cloister. If It Meant That, I Did Not Want It.

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The Soldier's Business Is To Take Life. For That He Is Paid By The State, Eulogized By Political Charlatans And Upheld By Public Hysteria. But Woman's Function Is To Give Life, Yet Neither The State Nor Politicians Nor Public Opinion Have Ever Made The Slightest Provision In Return For The Life Woman Has Given.

Patriotism Is A Menace To Liberty.

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They Do Not Want To Know That Centralization Is Not Only The Death-knell Of Liberty, But Also Of Health And Beauty, Of Art And Science, All These Being Impossible In A Clock-like, Mechanical Atmosphere.

The History Of Human Growth Is At The Same Time The History Of Every New Idea Heralding The Approach Of A Brighter Dawn, And The Brighter Dawn Has Always Been Considered Illegal, Outside Of The Law.

True Emancipation ... Will Have To Do Away With The Absurd Notion Of The Dualism Of The Sexes, Or That Man And Woman Represent Two Antagonistic Worlds.

Religion And Morality Are A Much Better Whip To Keep People In Submission Than Even The Club And The Gun.

You Have Opened Up The Prison Gates Of My Womanhood. And All The Passion That Was Unsatisfied In For Me So Many Years, Leaped Into A Wild Reckless Storm Boundless As The Sea.

If I Can Not Dance, I Want No Part In Your Revolution.

One Cannot Be Too Extreme In Dealing With Social Ills; The Extreme Thing Is Generally The True Thing.

Jealousy Is Indeed A Poor Medium To Secure Love, But It Is A Secure Medium To Destroy One

The Burden Of All Song And Praise "unto The Highest" Has Been That God Stands For Justice And Mercy. Yet Injustice Among Men Is Ever On The Increase; The Outrages Committed Against The Masses In This Country Alone Would Seem Enough To Overflow The Very Heavens. But Where Are The Gods To Make An End To All These Horrors, These Wrongs, This Inhumanity To Man? No, Not The Gods, But Man Must Rise In His Mighty Wrath. He, Deceived By All The Deities, Betrayed By Their Emissaries, He, Himself, Must Undertake To Usher In Justice Upon The Earth.

The Benefits Brought To The Russian People By Bolshevism Exist Only On Paper Painted In Glowing Colors By Bolshevist Propaganda.

A Practical Scheme, Says Oscar Wilde, Is Either One Already In Existence, Or A Scheme That Could Be Carried Out Under The Existing Conditions; But It Is Exactly The Existing Conditions That One Objects To, And Any Scheme That Could Accept These Conditions Is Wrong And Foolish.

Real Wealth Consists In Things Of Utility And Beauty, In Things That Help To Create Strong, Beautiful Bodies And Surroundings Inspiring To Live In.

I Want Freedom, The Right To Self-expression, Everybody's Right To Beautiful, Radiant Things.' Anarchism Meant That To Me, And I Would Live It In Spite Of The Whole World — Prisons, Persecution, Everything. Yes, Even In Spite Of The Condemnation Of My Own Closest Comrades I Would Live My Beautiful Ideal.

Why Waste Your Life Working For A Few Shillings A Week In A Scullery, Eighteen Hours A Day, When A Woman Could Earn A Decent Wage By Selling Her Body Instead?

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy. So Long As Every Institution Of Today, Economic, Political, Social, And Moral, Conspires To Misdirect Human Energy Into Wrong Channels; So Long As Most People Are Out Of Place Doing The Things They Hate To Do, Living A Life They Loathe To Live, Crime Will Be Inevitable, And All The Laws On The Statutes Can Only Increase, But Never Do Away With, Crime.

The Powers Know That The People At Large Are Like Children Whose Despair, Sorrow, And Tears Can Be Turned Into Joy With A Little Toy. ... An Army And Navy Represents The People's Toys.

A True Conception Of The Relation Of The Sexes Will Not Admit Of Conqueror And Conquered; It Knows Of But One Great Thing; To Give Of One's Self Boundlessly, In Order To Find One's Self Richer, Deeper, Better.

Under Miserable Conditions Of Life, Any Vision Of The Possibility Of Better Things Makes The Present Misery More Intolerable, And Spurs Those Who Suffer To The Most Energetic Struggles To Improve Their Lot, And If These Struggles Only Immediately Result In Sharper Misery, The Outcome Is Sheer Desperation.

Redemption Through The Cross Is Worse Than Damnation, Because Of The Terrible Burden It Imposes Upon Humanity, Because Of The Effect It Has On The Human Soul, Fettering And Paralyzing It With The Weight Of The Burden Exacted Through The Death Of Christ.

Christianity Is Most Admirably Adapted To The Training Of Slaves, To The Perpetuation Of A Slave Society.

The Demand For Equal Rights In Every Vocation Of Life Is Just And Fair; But, After All, The Most Vital Right Is The Right To Love And Be Loved.

I Regard It As A Tragedy That People Of A Differing Sexual Orientation Find Themselves Proscribed In A World That Has So Little Understanding For Homosexuals And That Displays Such Gross Indifference For Sexual Gradations And Variations And The Great Significance They Have For Living. It Is Completely Foreign To Me To Wish To Regard Such People As Less Valuable, Less Moral, Incapable Of Noble Sentiments And Behavior.

I Believe - Indeed, I Know - That Whatever Is Fine And Beautiful In The Human Expresses And Asserts Itself In Spite Of Government, And Not Because Of It.

How To Raise This Dead Level Of Theistic Belief Is Really A Matter Of Life And Death For All Denominations. Therefore Their Tolerance; But It Is A Tolerance Not Of Understanding; But Of Weakness.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World, The Mottos Of Which Are: 'to Take Is More Blessed Than To Give'; 'buy Cheap And Sell Dear'; 'one Soiled Hand Washes The Other.

The Most Vital Right Is The Right To Love And Be Loved.

Jealousy Is Indeed A Poor Medium To Secure Love, But It Is A Secure Medium To Destroy One's Self-respect. For Jealous People, Like Dope-fiends, Stoop To The Lowest Level And In The End Inspire Only Disgust And Loathing.

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

Puritanism, In Whatever Expression, Is A Poisonous Germ. On The Surface Everything May Look Strong And Vigorous; Yet The Poison Works Its Way Persistently, Until The Entire Fabric Is Doomed.

The Political Superstition Is Still Holding Sway Over The Hearts And Minds Of The Masses, But The True Lovers Of Liberty Will Have No More To Do With It. Instead, They Believe With Stirner That Man Has As Much Liberty As He Is Willing To Take. Anarchism Therefore Stands For Direct Action, The Open Defiance Of, And Resistance To, All Laws And Restrictions, Economic, Social, And Moral. But Defiance And Resistance Are Illegal. Therein Lies The Salvation Of Man. Everything Illegal Necessitates Integrity, Self-reliance And Courage.

It Is The Absolutism Of Theism, Its Pernicious Influence Upon Humanity, Its Paralyzing Effect Upon Thought And Action, Which Atheism Is Fighting With All Its Power.

Poor America, Of What Avail Is All Her Wealth, If The Individuals Comprising The Nation Are Wretchedly Poor? If They Live In Squalor, In Filth, In Crime, With Hope And Joy Gone, A Homeless, Soulless Army Of Human Prey.

No, It Is Not Because Woman Is Lacking In Responsibility, But Because She Has Too Much Of The Latter That She Demands To Know How To Prevent Conception.

The Most Violent Element In Society Is Ignorance.

In The True Sense One's Native Land, With Its Background Of Tradition, Early Impressions, Reminiscences And Other Things Dear To One, Is Not Enough To Make Sensitive Human Beings Feel At Home.

I Did Not Believe That A Cause Which Stood For A Beautiful Ideal, For Anarchism, For Release And Freedom From Convention And Prejudice, Should Demand The Denial Of Life And Joy. I Insisted That Our Cause Could Not Expect Me To Become A Nun And That The Movement Would Not Be Turned Into A Cloister. If It Meant That, I Did Not Want It.

No Revolution Can Ever Succeed As A Factor Of Liberation Unless The Means Used To Further It Be Identical In Spirit And Tendency With The Purposes To Be Achieved. Revolution Is The Negation Of The Existing, A Violent Protest Against Man's Inhumanity To Man With All The Thousand And One Slaveries It Involves. It Is The Destroyer Of Dominant Values Upon Which A Complex System Of Injustice, Oppression, And Wrong Has Been Built Up By Ignorance And Brutality. It Is The Herald Of New Values, Ushering In A Transformation Of The Basic Relations Of Man To Man, And Of Man To Society.

When We Have Undermined The Patriotic Lie, We Shall Have Cleared The Path For The Great Structure Where All Shall Be United Into A Universal Brotherhood — A Truly Free Society.

It Cannot Be Sufficiently Emphasized That Revolution Is In Vain Unless Inspired By Its Ultimate Ideal. Revolutionary Methods Must Be In Tune With Revolutionary Aims.

It Is Essential That We Realize Once And For All That Man Is Much More Of A Sex Creature Than A Moral Creature. The Former Is Inherent, The Other Is Grafted On.

The Dominant, Almost General, Idea Of Revolution - Particularly The Socialist Idea - Is That Revolution Is A Violent Change Of Social Conditions Through Which One Social Class, The Working Class, Becomes Dominant Over Another Class, The Capitalist Class. It Is The Conception Of A Purely Physical Change, And As Such It Involves Only Political Scene Shifting And Institutional Rearrangements

The State Is The Altar Of Political Freedom And, Like The Religious Altar, It Is Maintained For The Purpose Of Human Sacrifice.

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most.

Religion! How It Dominates Man's Mind, How It Humiliates And Degrades His Soul. God Is Everything, Man Is Nothing, Says Religion.but Out Of That Nothing God Has Created A Kingdom So Despotic, So Tyrannical, So Cruel, So Terribly Exacting That Naught But Gloom And Tears And Blood Have Ruled The World Since Gods Began.

The Free Expression Of The Hopes And Aspirations Of A People Is The Greatest And Only Safety In A Sane Society.

Whether Our Reformers Admit It Or Not, The Economic And Social Inferiority Of Women Is Responsible For Prostitution.

The Function Of Militarism Is To Kill. It Cannot Live Except Through Murder.

Have Not All Theists Painted Their Deity As The God Of Love And Goodness? Yet After Thousands Of Years Of Such Preachments The Gods Remain Deaf To The Agony Of The Human Race.

Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods; Nothing But Pain And Persecution Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began.

Anarchism, Then, Really Stands For The Liberation Of The Human Mind From The Dominion Of Religion.

In The Face Of This Approaching Disaster, It Behooves Men And Women Not Yet Overcome By War Madness To Raise Their Voice Of Protest, To Call The Attention Of The People To The Crime And Outrage Which Are About To Be Perpetrated On Them.

Militarism Consumes The Strongest And Most Productive Elements Of Each Nation. Militarism Swallows The Largest Part Of The National Revenue.

Merely External Emancipation Has Made Of The Modern Woman An Artificial Being. Now, Woman Is Confronted With The Necessity Of Emancipating Herself From Emancipation, If She Really Desires To Be Free.

Corruption Of Politics Has Nothing To Do With The Morals, Or The Laxity Of Morals, Of Various Political Personalities. Its Cause Is Altogether A Material One.

Since Every Effort In Our Educational Life Seems To Be Directed Toward Making Of The Child A Being Foreign To Itself, It Must Of Necessity Produce Individuals Foreign To One Another, And In Everlasting Antagonism With Each Other.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

Man Has Bought Brains, But All The Millions In The World Have Failed To Buy Love. Man Has Subdued Bodies, But All The Power On Earth Has Been Unable To Subdue Love. Man Has Conquered Whole Nations, But All His Armies Could Not Conquer Love. Man Has Chained And Fettered The Spirit, But He Has Been Utterly Helpless Before Love. Thus Love Has The Magic Power To Make Of A Beggar A King.

After All, That Is What Laws Are For, To Be Made And Unmade.

Thus Dante's Motto Over Inferno Applies With Equal Force To Marriage: "ye Who Enter Here Leave All Hope Behind.

Prostitution, Although Hounded, Imprisoned, And Chained, Is Nevertheless The Greatest Triumph Of Puritanism.

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy.

[woman's] Life-long Economic Parasitism Has Utterly Blurred Her Conception Of The Meaning Of Equality.

We Say That If America Has Entered The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy, She Must First Make Democracy Safe In America.

We Say That If America Has Entered The War To Make The World Safe For Democracy, She Must First Make Democracy Safe In America. How Else Is The World To Take America Seriously, When Democracy At Home Is Daily Being Outraged, Free Speech Suppressed, Peaceable Assemblies Broken Up By Overbearing And Brutal Gangsters In Uniform; When Free Press Is Curtailed And Every Independent Opinion Gagged? Verily, Poor As We Are In Democracy, How Can We Give Of It To The World?

True Emancipation Begins Neither At The Polls Nor In The Courts. It Begins In Woman's Soul.

A Politician, He Knows That The Majority Cares Little For Ideals Or Integrity. What It Craves Is Display.

The History Of Progress Is Written In The Blood Of Men And Women Who Have Dared To Espouse An Unpopular Cause, As, For Instance, The Black Man's Right To His Body, Or Woman's Right To Her Soul.

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens.

To Call The State An Organism Shows A Diseased Tendency To Make A Fetish Of Words.

Anarchism, The Great Leaven Of Thought, Is Today Permeating Every Phase Of Human Endeavor.... It Is The Philosophy Of The Sovereignty Of The Individual. It Is The Theory Of Social Harmony. It Is The Great, Surging, Living Truth That Is Reconstructing The World, And That Will Usher In The Dawn.

The Most Absurd Apology For Authority And Law Is That They Serve To Diminish Crime. Aside From The Fact That The State Is Itself The Greatest Criminal, Breaking Every Written And Natural Law, Stealing In The Form Of Taxes, Killing In The Form Of War And Capital Punishment, It Has Come To An Absolute Standstill In Coping With Crime. It Has Failed Utterly To Destroy Or Even Minimize The Horrible Scourge Of Its Own Creation.

Social And Economic Well-being Will Become A Reality Only Through The Zeal, Courage, The Non-compromising Determination Of Intelligent Minorities, And Not Through The Mass.

The Christian Religion And Morality Extols The Glory Of The Hereafter, And Therefore Remains Indifferent To The Horrors Of The Earth. Indeed, The Idea Of Self-denial And Of All That Makes For Pain And Sorrow Is Its Test Of Human Worth, Its Passport To The Entry Into Heaven.

It Is A Tragedy, I Feel, That People Of A Different Sexual Type Are Caught In A World Which Shows So Little Understanding For Homosexuals And Is So Crassly Indifferent To The Various Gradations And Variations Of Gender And Their Great Significance In Life.

How Long Would Authority ... Exist, If Not For The Willingness Of The Mass To Become Soldiers, Policemen, Jailers, And Hangmen.

Lack Of Fairness To An Opponent Is Essentially A Sign Of Weakness.

Nothing Would Prove More Disastrous To Our Ideas, We Contended, Than To Neglect The Effect Of The Internal Upon The External, Of The Psychological Motives And Needs Upon Existing Institutions.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

What I Believe Is A Process Rather Than A Finality.

More Pernicious Than The Power Of A Dictator Is That Of A Class; The Most Terrible - The Tyranny Of A Majority.

Art Is A Part Of The Rebellion Against The Realities Of Its Unfulfilled Desire.

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

Leo Tolstoy ... Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers.

The Pathos Of It All Is That The America Which Is To Be Protected By A Huge Military Force Is Not The America Of The People, But That Of The Privileged Class.

The Majority Cannot Reason; It Has No Judgement. It Has Always Placed Its Destiny In The Hands Of Others; It Has Followed Its Leaders Even Into Destruction. The Mass Has Always Opposed, Condemned, And Hounded The Innovator, The Pioneer Of A New Truth.

Anarchism Asserts The Possibility Of An Organization Without Discipline, Fear, Or Punishment, And Without The Pressure Of Poverty: A New Social Organism Which Will Make An End To The Terrible Struggle For The Means Of Existence, --the Savage Struggle Which Undermines The Finest Qualities In Man, And Ever Widens The Social Abyss. In Short, Anarchism Strives Towards A Social Organization Which Will Establish Well-being For All.

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

Marriage Is Primarily An Economic Arrangement, An Insurance Pact. It Differs From The Ordinary Life Insurance Agreement Only In That It Is More Binding, More Exacting.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name! All Wars Are Wars Among Thieves Who Are Too Cowardly To Fight And Who Therefore Induce The Young Manhood Of The Whole World To Do The Fighting For Them.

No Great Idea In Its Beginning Can Ever Be Within The Law. How Can It Be Within The Law?

There Are, However, Some Potentates I Would Kill By Any And All Means At My Disposal. They Are Ignorance, Superstition, And Bigotry — The Most Sinister And Tyrannical Rulers On Earth.

Woman, Essentially A Purist, Is Naturally Bigoted And Relentless In Her Effort To Make Others As Good As She Thinks They Ought To Be.

What Is Generally Regarded As Success - Acquisition Of Wealth, The Capture Of Power Or Social Prestige - I Consider The Most Dismal Failures. I Hold When It Is Said Of A Man That He Has Arrived, It Means That He Is Finished - His Development Has Stopped At That Point.

What Is Patriotism? Is It Love Of One's Birthplace, The Place Of Childhood's Recollections And Hopes, Dreams And Aspirations? Is It The Place Where, In Childlike Naïveté, We Would Watch The Passing Clouds, And Wonder Why We, Too, Could Not Float So Swiftly? The Place Where We Would Count The Milliard Glittering Stars, Terror-stricken Lest Each One "an Eye Should Be," Piercing The Very Depths Of Our Little Souls?

Anarchism...stands For Direct Action, The Open Defiance Of, And Resistance To, All Laws And Restrictions, Economic, Social, And Moral.

Do Not All Theists Insist That There Can Be No Morality, No Justice, Honesty Or Fidelity Without The Belief In A Divine Power? Based Upon Fear And Hope, Such Morality Has Always Been A Vile Product, Imbued Partiy With Self-righteousness, Partly With Hypocrisy.

Heaven Must Be An Awfully Dull Place If The Poor In Spirit Live There.

Direct Action Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism.

Always, At Every Period, The Few Were The Banner Bearers Of A Great Idea, Of Liberating Effort. Not So The Mass, The Leaden Weight Of Which Does Not Let It Move.

John Burroughs Has Stated That Experimental Study Of Animals In Captivity Is Absolutely Useless. Their Character, Their Habits, Their Appetites Undergo A Complete Transformation When Torn From Their Soil In Field And Forest. With Human Nature Caged In A Narrow Space, Whipped Daily Into Submission, How Can We Speak Of Its Potentialities?

The Ultimate End Of All Revolutionary Social Change Is To Establish The Sanctity Of Human Life, The Dignity Of Man, The Right Of Every Human Being To Liberty And Well-being.

The People Are Urged To Be Patriotic ... By Sacrificing Their Own Children. Patriotism Requires Allegience To The Flag, Which Means Obedience And Readiness To Kill Father, Mother, Brother, Sister.

Success Achieved By The Most Contemptible Means Cannot But Destroy The Soul. ... It Helps To Cover Up The Inner Corruption And Gradually Dulls One's Scruples, So That Those Who Begin With Some High Ambition Cannot, Even If They Would, Create Anything Out Of Themselves.

The God Idea Is Growing More Impersonal And Nebulous In Proportion As The Human Mind Is Learning To Understand Natural Phenomena And In The Degree That Science Progressively Correlates Human And Social Events.

The State Has No More Existence Than Gods And Devils Have. They Are Equally The Reflex And Creation Of Man, For Man, The Individual, Is The Only Reality. The State Is But The Shadow Of Man, The Shadow Of His Opaqueness, Of His Ignorance And Fear.

Some People Never Seem To Learn From Experience. No Matter How Often They Had Seen The Lion Devour The Lamb, They Continued To Cling To The Hope That The Nature Of The Beast Might Change. If Only The Lion Could Get To Know The Lamb Better, They Argued, Or Talk Matters Over.

Religion Is A Superstition That Originated In Man`s Mental Inability To Solve Natural Phenomena. The Church Is An Orgainized Institution That Has Always Been Stumbling To Block Progress.

Out Of The Chaos, The Future Emerges In Harmony And Beauty.

If They Do Not Give You Work, Demand Bread. If They Deny You Both, Take Bread. It Is Your Sacred Right!

From Infancy, Almost, The Average Girl Is Told That Marriage Is Her Ultimate Goal; Therefore Her Training And Education Must Be Directed Toward That End. Like The Mute Beast Fattened For Slaughter, She Is Prepared For That.

To The Indefinite, Uncertain Mind Of The American Radical The Most Contradictory Ideas And Methods Are Possible. The Result Is A Sad Chaos In The Radical Movement, A Sort Of Intellectual Hash, Which Has Neither Taste Nor Character.

Morality And Its Victim, The Mother - What A Terrible Picture! Is There Indeed Anything More Terrible, More Criminal, Than Our Glorified Sacred Function Of Motherhood?

The Average Mind Is Slow In Grasping A Truth, But When The Most Thoroughly Organized, Centralized Institution, Maintained At An Excessive National Expense, Has Proven A Complete Social Failure, The Dullest Must Begin To Question Its Right To Exist. The Time Is Past When We Can Be Content With Our Social Fabric Merely Because It Is "ordained By Divine Right," Or By The Majesty Of The Law.

What A Strange Development Of Patriotism That Turns A Thinking Being Into A Loyal Machine!

The Contention That A Standing Army And Navy Is The Best Security Of Peace Is About As Logical As The Claim That The Most Peaceful Citizen Is He Who Goes About Heavily Armed.

I'd Rather Have Roses On My Table Than Diamonds On My Neck.

Publishers, Theatrical Managers, And Critics Ask Not For The Quality Inherent In Creative Art, But Will It Meet With A Good Sale, Will It Suit The Palate Of The People? Alas, This Palate Is Like A Dumping Ground; It Relishes Anything That Needs No Mental Mastication. As A Result, The Mediocre, The Ordinary, The Commonplace Represents The Chief Literary Output.

Readiness,' Far Far From Assuring Peace, Has At All Times And In All Countries Been Instrumental In Precipitating Armed Conflicts.

Imagine, Capitalist America Also Divides The Anarchists Into Two Categories, Philosophic And Criminal. The First Are Accepted In Highest Circles; One Of Them Is Even High In The Councils Of The Wilson Administration. The Second Category, To Which We Have The Honor Of Belonging, Is Persecuted And Often Imprisoned. Yours Also Seems To Be A Distinction Without A Difference. Don't You Think So?

... The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice.

The Individual Is The True Reality Of Life. A Cosmos In Himself, He Does Not Exist For The State, Nor For That Abstraction Called "society," Or The "nation," Which Is Only A Collection Of Individuals.

Men And Women ... Do You Not Realize That The State Is The Worst Enemy You Have? It Is A Machine That Crushes You In Order To Sustain The Ruling Class, Your Masters. Like Naïve Children You Put Your Trust In Your Political Leaders. You Make It Possible For Them To Creep Into Your Confidence, Only To Have Them Betray You To The First Bidder. But Even Where There Is No Direct Betrayal, The Labour Politicians Make Common Cause With Your Enemies To Keep You In Leash, To Prevent Your Direct Action. The State Is The Pillar Of Capitalism, And It Is Ridiculous To Expect Any Redress From It.

Free Love? As If Love Is Anything But Free. Man Has Bought Brains, But All The Millions In The World Have Failed To Buy Love.

Nora Leaves Her Husband, Not-as The Stupid Critic Would Have It-because She Is Tired Of Her Responsibilities Or Feels The Need Of Woman's Rights, But Because She Has Come To Know That For Eight Years She Had Lived With A Stranger And Borne Him Children. Can There Be Anything More Humiliating, More Degrading Than A Life-long Proximity Between Two Strangers? No Need For The Woman To Know Anything Of The Man, Save His Income. As To The Knowledge Of The Woman-what Is There To Know Except That She Has A Pleasing Appearance?

So Few People Realize That Preparedness Never Leads To Peace, But That It Is Indeed The Road To Universal Slaughter.

Democracy Must First Be Safe For America Before It Can Be Safe For The World.

If Not For The Direct Action Of A John Brown And His Comrades, America Would Still Trade In The Flesh Of The Black Man.

... Resistance To Tyranny Is Man's Highest Ideal.

Liberty Will Not Descend To A People, A People Must Raise Themselves To Liberty...

When The Child Has Reached Manhood He Is Thoroughly Saturated With The Belief That He Is Chosen By The Lord Himself To Defend His Country Against The Attack Or Invasion Of Any Foreigner. It Is For That Purpose That We Are Clamoring For A Greater Army And Navy, More Battleships And Ammunition.

Conceit, Arrogance And Egotism Are The Essentials Of Patriotism... Patriotism Assumes That Our Globe Is Divided Into Little Spots, Each One Surrounded By An Iron Gate. Those Who Have Had The Fortune Of Being Born On Some Particular Spot Consider Themselves Nobler, Better, Grander, More Intelligent Than Those Living Beings Inhabiting Any Other Spot. It Is, Therefore, The Duty Of Everyone Living On That Chosen Spot To Fight, Kill And Die In The Attempt To Impose His Superiority Upon All The Others.

There Is No Greater Fallacy Than The Belief That Aims And Purposes Are One Thing, While Methods And Tactics Are Another ... All Human Experience Teaches That Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

Rather Would I Have The Love Songs Of Romantic Ages, Rather Don Juan And Madame Venus, Rather An Elopement By Ladder And Rope On A Moonlight Night, Followed By The Father's Curse, Mother's Moans, And The Moral Comments Of Neighbors, Than Correctness And Propriety Measured By Yardsticks.

Pettiness Separates; Breadth Unites. Let Us Be Broad And Big.

What I Prized Most Was Freedom, Freedom To Do My Work, To Give Myself Spontaneously And Not Out Of Duty Or By Command. I Could Not Submit To Such Demands; Rather Would I Choose The Path Of A Homeless Wanderer; Yes, Even Go Without Love.

Anarchism Aims To Strip Labor Of Its Deadening, Dulling Aspect, Of Its Gloom And Compulsion. It Aims To Make Work An Instrument Of Joy, Of Strength, Of Color, Of Real Harmony, So That The Poorest Sort Of A Man Should Find In Work Both Recreation And Hope.

Direct Action Against The Authority In The Shop, Direct Action Against The Authority Of The Law, Direct Action Against The Invasive, Meddlesome Authority Of Our Moral Code, Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism. Will It Not Lead To A Revolution? Indeed, It Will. No Real Social Change Has Ever Come Without A Revolution. People Are Either Not Familiar With Their History, Or They Have Not Yet Learned That Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

Modern Woman Is No Longer Satisfied To Be The Beloved Of A Man; She Looks For Understanding, Comradeship; She Wants To Be Treated As A Human Being And Not Simply As An Object For Sexual Gratification.

Anarchism:the Philosophy Of A New Social Order Based On Liberty Unrestricted By Man-made Law; The Theory That All Forms Of Government Rest On Violence, And Are Therefore Wrong And Harmful, As Well As Unnecessary.

... Woman Does Not See What People Of Intellect Perceived Fifty Years Ago: That Suffrage Is An Evil, That It Has Only Helped To Enslave People, That It Has But Closed Their Eyes That They May Not See How Craftily They Were Made To Submit.

Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

Wealth Means Power: The Power To Subdue, To Crush, To Exploit, The Power To Enslave, To Outrage, To Degrade.

The State Is A Term For The Legislative And Administrative Machinery Whereby Certain Business Of The People Is Transacted, And Badly So.

Revolution Is Indeed A Violent Process. But If It Is To Result Only In A Change Of Dictatorship, In A Shifting Of Names And Political Personalities, Then It Is Hardly Worth While.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name! Every Fool, From King To Policeman, From The Flatheaded Parson To The Visionless Dabbler In Science, Presumes To Speak Authoritatively Of Human Nature. The Greater The Mental Charlatan, The More Definite His Insistence On The Wickedness And Weaknesses Of Human Nature.

No Real Social Change Has Ever Been Brought About Without A Revolution... Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

Atheism In Its Negation Of Gods Is At The Same Time The Strongest Affirmation Of Man, And Through Man, The Eternal Yea To Life, Purpose, And Beauty.

The Import Is Not The Kind Of Work Woman Does, But Rather The Quality Of The Work She Furnishes.

Patriotism ... Is A Superstition Artificially Created And Maintained Through A Network Of Lies And Falsehoods; A Superstition That Robs Man Of His Self-respect And Dignity, And Increases His Arrogance And Conceit.

When In The Course Of Human Development, Existing Institutions Prove Inadequate To The Needs Of Man, When They Serve Merely To Enslave, Rob And Oppress Mankind, The People Have The Eternal Right To Rebel Against, And Overthrow, These Institutions.

The Experience Of Every-day Life Fully Proves That The Armed Individual Is Invariably Anxious To Try His Strength. The Same Is Historically True Of Governments. Really Peaceful Countries Do Not Waste Life And Energy In War Preparations, With The Result That Peace Is Maintained.

What's Wrong With Lust? You Fancy Your Neighbor's Husband So What Are You Supposed To Do? Poke Your Eyes Out So That You Can't See Him Anymore? Acting On It Is Maybe A Sin ... But My God, Just Lusting After Someone? Is That So Bad?

The Triumph Of The Philosophy Of Atheism Is To Free Man From The Nightmare Of Gods; It Means The Dissolution Of The Phantoms Of The Beyond.

We Americans Claim To Be A Peace-loving People. We Hate Bloodshed; We Are Opposed To Violence. Yet We Go Into Spasms Of Joy Over The Possibility Of Projecting Dynamite Bombs From Flying Machines Upon Helpless Citizens. We Are Ready To Hang, Electrocute, Or Lynch Anyone, Who, From Economic Necessity, Will Risk His Own Life In The Attempt Upon That Of Some Industrial Magnate. Yet Our Hearts Swell With Pride At The Thought That America Is Becoming The Most Powerful Nation On Earth, And That She Will Eventually Plant Her Iron Foot On The Necks Of All Other Nations. Such Is The Logic Of Patriotism.

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

The Emotions Of The Ignorant Man Are Continuously Kept At A Pitch By The Most Blood-curdling Stories About Anarchism. Not A Thing Too Outrageous To Be Employed Against This Philosophy And Its Exponents. Therefore Anarchism Represents To The Unthinking What The Proverbial Bad Man Does To The Child,-a Black Monster Bent On Swallowing Everything; In Short, Destruction And Violence.

The Government Will ... Go On In The Highly Democratic Method Of Conscripting American Manhood For European Slaughter.

I Want Freedom, The Right To Self-expression , Everybody's Right To Beautiful, Radiant Things.

The Greater The Mental Charlatan, The More Definite His Insistence On The Wickedness And Weaknesses Of Human Nature. Yet How Can Anyone Speak Of It Today, With Every Soul In A Prison, With Every Heart Fettered, Wounded, And Maimed?... With Human Nature Caged In A Narrow Space, Whipped Daily Into Submission, How Can We Speak Of Its Potentialities?

... Nothing Satisfies The Craving Of Most Women So Much As Scandal.

Those Who Sit In A Glass House Do Wrong To Throw Stones About Them; Besides, The American Glass House Is Rather Thin, It Will Break Easily, And The Interior Is Anything But A Gainly Sight.

The American Suffrage Movement Has Been, Until Very Recently, Altogether A Parlor Affair, Absolutely Detached From The Economic Needs Of The People.

... Woman's Narrow And Purist Attitude Toward Life Makes Her A Greater Danger To Liberty Wherever She Has Political Power. Man Haslong Overcome The Superstitions That Still Engulf Women.

... If The Production Of Any Commodity Necessitates The Sacrifice Of Human Life, Society Should Do Without That Commodity, But Itcan Not Do Without That Life.

Few Countries Have Produced Such Arrogance And Snobbishness As America. Particularly Is This True Of The American Woman Of The Middle Class. She Not Only Considers Herself The Equal Of Man, But His Superior, Especially In Her Purity, Goodness, And Morality. Small Wonder That The American Suffragist Claims For Her Vote The Most Miraculous Powers. In Her Exalted Conceit She Does Not See How Truly Enslaved She Is, Not So Much By Man, As By Her Own Silly Notions And Traditions. Suffrage Can Not Ameliorate That Sad Fact; It Can Only Accentuate It, As Indeed It Does.

Man Must Get Back To Himself Before He Can Learn His Relation To His Fellows. Prometheus Chained To The Rock Of Ages Is Doomed To Remain The Prey Of The Vultures Of Darkness. Unbind Prometheus, And You Dispel The Night And Its Horrors.

It Is Characteristic Of Theistic "tolerance" That No One Really Cares What The People Believe In, Just So They Believe Or Pretend To Believe.

The State, Every Government Whatever Its Form, Character Or Color - Be It Absolute Or Constitutional, Monarchy Or Republic, Fascist, Nazi Or Bolshevik - Is By Its Very Nature Conservative, Static, Intolerant Of Change And Opposed To It.

Political Violence Is Organized Violence On The Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom.

The Strongest Bulwark Of Authority Is Uniformity; The Least Divergence From It Is The Greatest Crime.

The Poor, Stupid, Free American Citizen! Free To Starve, Free To Tramp The Highways Of This Great Country, He Enjoys Universal Suffrage, And By That Right, He Has Forged Chains Around His Limbs. The Reward That He Receives Is Stringent Labor Laws Prohibiting The Right Of Boycott, Of Picketing, Of Everything, Except The Right To Be Robbed Of The Fruits Of His Labor.

Peace Or Harmony Between The Sexes And Individuals Does Not Necessarily Depend On A Superficial Equalization Of Human Beings; Nor Does It Call For The Elimination Of Individual Traits And Peculiarities. The Problem That Confronts Us Today, And Which The Nearest Future Is To Solve, Is How To Be One's Self And Yet In Oneness With Others, To Feel Deeply With All Human Beings And Still Retain One's Own Characteristic Qualities.

Every Daring Attempt To Make A Great Change In Existing Conditions, Every Lofty Vision Of New Possibilities For The Human Race, Has Been Labeled Utopian.

The Inherent Tendency Of The State Is To Concentrate, To Narrow, And Monopolize All Social Activities; The Nature Of Revolution Is, On The Contrary, To Grow, To Broaden, And Disseminate Itself In Ever-wider Circles. In Other Words, The State Is Institutional And Static; Revolution Is Fluent, Dynamic.

Statutory Regulations, Legislative Enactments, Constitutional Provisions, Are Invasive. They Never Yet Induced Man To Do Anything He Could And Would Not Do By Virtue Of His Intellect Or Temperament, Nor Prevented Anything That Man Was Impelled To Do By The Same Dictates.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Has Its Root In The Earth, In This Life; Its Aim Is The Emancipation Of The Human Race From All God-heads, Be They Judaic, Christian, Mohammedan, Buddhistic, Brahmanistic, Or What Not. Mankind Has Been Punished Long And Heavily For Having Created Its Gods, Nothing But Pain And Persecution, Have Been Man's Lot Since Gods Began. There Is But One Way Out Of This Blunder. Man Must Break His Fetters Which Have Chained Him To The Gates Of Heaven And Hell, So That He Can Begin To Fashion Out Of His Reawakened And Illumined Consciousness A New World Upon The Earth.

No Real Social Change Has Ever Been Brought About Without A Revolution - Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action. Every Effort For Progress, For Enlightenment, For Science, For Religious, Political, And Economic Liberty, Emanates From The Minority, And Not From The Mass.

To The Moralist Prostitution Does Not Consist So Much In The Fact That The Woman Sells Her Body, But Rather That She Sells It Out Of Wedlock.

The Philosophy Of Atheism Represents A Concept Of Life Without Any Metaphysical Beyond Or Divine Regulator. It Is The Concept Of An Actual, Real World With Its Liberating, Expanding And Beautifying Possibilities, As Against An Unreal World, Which, With Its Spirits, Oracles, And Mean Contentment Has Kept Humanity In Helpless Degradation.

There Is No Such Thing As A Good Government. There Never Was. There Can't Be.

Yes, Authority, Coercion, And Dependence Rest On The Mass, But Never Freedom Or The Free Unfoldment Of The Individual, Never The Birth Of A Free Society. The Socialist Demagogues Know That As Well As I, But They Maintain The Myth Of The Virtues Of The Majority, Because Their Very Scheme Of Life Means The Perpetuation Of Power.

Before We Can Forgive One Another, We Have To Understand One Another.

If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Make It Illegal.

The Majority Represent A Mass Of Cowards, Willing To Accept Him Who Mirror Its Own Soul And Mind Poverty.

Consciously Or Unconsciously, Most Theists See In Gods And Devils, Heaven And Hell, Reward And Punishment, A Whip To Lash The People Into Obedience, Meekness And Contentment.... The Philosophy Of Atheism Expresses The Expansion And Growth Of The Human Mind. The Philosophy Of Theism, If We Can Call It A Philosophy, Is Static And Fixed.

Revolution That Divests Itself Of Ethical Values Thereby Lays The Foundation Of Injustice, Deceit, And Oppression For The Future Society.

Even Were The Workers Able To Have Their Own Representatives, For Which Our Good Socialist Politicians Are Clamoring, What Chances Are There For Their Honesty And Good Faith?

The Whole History Of Man Is Continuous Proof Of The Maxim That To Divest One's Methods Of Ethical Concepts Means To Sink Into The Depths Of Utter Demoralization.

‎civilization Has Been A Continuous Struggle Of The Individual Or Of Groups Of Individuals Against The State And Even Against "society," That Is, Against The Majority Subdued And Hypnotized By The State And State Worship.

The Political Arena Leaves One No Alternative, One Must Either Be A Dunce Or A Rogue.

There's Never Been A Good Government.

Indeed, The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice. With The Arrogance And Self-sufficiency Of The King Who Could Do No Wrong, Governments Ordain, Judge, Condemn, And Punish The Most Insignificant Offenses, While Maintaining Themselves By The Greatest Of All Offenses, The Annihilation Of Individual Liberty.

Sure, Nothing Succeeds Like Success. Fact Is, Dearest, We Are Fools. We Cling To An Ideal No One Wants Or Cares About. I Am The Greater Fool Of The Two Of Us. I Go On Eating Out My Heart And Poisoning Every Moment Of My Life In The Attempt To Rouse People's Sensibilities. At Least If I Could Do It With Closed Eyes. The Irony Is I See The Futility Of My Efforts And Yet I Can't Let Go.

I Was Called Before The Head Matron, A Tall Woman With A Stolid Face. She Began Taking My Pedigree. What Religion? Was The First Question. None, I Am An Atheist. Atheism Is Prohibited Here. You Will Have To Go To Church. I Replied That I Would Do Nothing Of The Kind. I Did Not Believe In Anything The Church Stood For And, Not Being A Hypocrite, I Would Not Attend.

It Requires Something More Than Personal Experience To Gain A Philosophy Or Point Of View From Any Specific Event. It Is The Quality Of Our Response To The Event And Our Capacity To Enter Into The Lives Of Others That Help Us To Make Their Lives And Experiences Our Own. In My Own Case My Convictions Have Derived And Developed From Events In The Lives Of Others As Well As From My Own Experience. What I Have Seen Meted Out To Others By Authority And Repression, Economic And Political, Transcends Anything I Myself May Have Endured.

In Modern Capitalism Economic Exploitation Rather Than Political Oppression Is The Real Enemy Of The People.

Mother Liberty Caresses With Generous Affections...[those] Who, Armed With The Weapons Of High-minded Honesty,...have Grasped That The Freedom Of Each Is Rooted In The Freedom Of All.

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