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The Conception Of Gods Originated In Fear And Curiosity. Primitive Man, Unable To Understand The Phenomena Of Nature, And Harassed By Them, Saw In Every Terrifying Manifestation Some Sinister Force Expressly Directed Against Him; And As Ignorance And Fear Are The Parents Of All Superstition, The Troubled Fancy Of Primitive Man Wove The God Idea.

-Emma Goldman

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The Conception Of Gods

Emma Goldman

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The Conception Of Gods Originated In Fear And Curiosity. Primitive Man, Unable To Understand The Phenomena Of Nature, And Harassed By Them, Saw In Every Terrifying Manifestation Some Sinister Force Expressly Directed Against Him; And As Ignorance And Fear Are The Parents Of All Superstition, The Troubled Fancy Of Primitive Man Wove The God Idea.

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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 Keynote Of Government Is Injustice.

Poor Human Nature, What Horrible Crimes Have Been Committed In Thy Name!

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.

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.

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.

Perhaps Even More Than Constituted Authority, It Is Social Uniformity And Sameness That Harass The Individual Most. His Very "uniqueness," "separateness" And "differentiation" Make Him An Alien, Not Only In His Native Place, But Even In His Own Home. Often More So Than The Foreign Born Who Generally Falls In With The Established.

No One Has Yet Realized The Wealth Of Sympathy, The Kindness And Generosity Hidden In The Soul Of A Child. The Effort Of Every True Education Should Be To Unlock That Treasure.

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?

Peter Kropotkin...was Recognized By Friend And Foe As One Of The Greatest Minds...of The Nineteenth Century...the Lucidity And Brilliance Of His Mind Combined With His Warm-heartednes S Into The Harmonious Whole Of A Fascinating And Gracious Personality.

Women Need Not Always Keep Their Mouths Shut And Their Wombs Open.

With The Conception That The Revolution Was Only A Means Of Securing Political Power, It Was Inevitable That All Revolutionary Values Should Be Subordinated To The Needs Of The Socialist State; Indeed, Exploited To Further The Security Of The Newly Acquired Governmental Power.

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 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.

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.

You Cannot Build Up A Standing Army And Then Throw It Back Into A Box Like Tin Soldiers. Armies Equipped To The Teeth With Weapons, With Highly Developed Instruments Of Murder And Backed By Their Military Interests, Have Their Own Dynamic Functions.

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. Confucius Cares Not For The Poverty, Squalor And Misery Of The People Of China. Buddha Remains Undisturbed In His Philosophical Indifference To The Famine And Starvation Of Outraged Hindoos; Jahve Continues Deaf To The Bitter Cry Of Israel; While Jesus Refuses To Rise From The Dead Against His Christians Who Are Butchering Each Other.

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.

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

Predigested Food' Should Be Inscribed Over Every Hall Of Learning As A Warning To All Who Do Not Wish To Lose Their Own Personalities And Their Original Sense Of Judgment.

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

Order Derived Through Submission And Maintained By Terror Is Not Much Of A Safe Guaranty; Yet That Is The Only "order" That Governments Have Ever Maintained. True Social Harmony Grows Naturally Out Of Solidarity Of Interests. In A Society Where Those Who Always Work Never Have Anything, While Those Who Never Work Enjoy Everything, Solidarity Of Interests Is Non-existent; Hence Social Harmony Is But A Myth.... Thus The Entire Arsenal Of Governments - Laws, Police, Soldiers, The Courts, Legislatures, Prisons - Is Strenuously Engaged In "harmonizing" The Most Antagonistic Elements In Society.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

People Have Only As Much Liberty As They Have The Intelligence To Want And The Courage To Take.

... 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.

Never Can A New Idea Move Within The Law. It Matters Not Whether That Idea Pertains To Political And Social Changes Or To Any Other Domain Of Human Thought And Expression - To Science, Literature, Music; In Fact, Everything That Makes For Freedom And Joy And Beauty Must Refuse To Move Within The Law. How Can It Be Otherwise? The Law Is Stationary, Fixed, Mechanical, 'a Chariot Wheel' Which Grinds All Alike Without Regard To Time, Place And Condition, Without Ever Taking Into Account Cause And Effect, Without Ever Going Into The Complexity Of The Human Soul.

Understand One Another.

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

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

Nowhere Is Woman Treated According To The Merit Of Her Work, But Rather As A Sex. It Is Therefore Almost Inevitable That She Should Pay For Her Right To Exist, To Keep A Position In Whatever Line, With Sex Favors. Thus It Is Merely A Question Of Degree Whether She Sells Herself To One Man, In Or Out Of Marriage, Or To Many Men!... The Economic And Social Inferiority Of Woman Is Responsible For Prostitution.

The Most Violent Element In Society Is Ignorance.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Christ And His Teachings Are The Embodiment Of Submission, Of Inertia, Of The Denial Of Life; Hence Responsible For The Things Done In Their Name.

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

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.

Give Us What Belongs To Us In Peace, And If You Don't Give It To Us In Peace, We Will Take It By Force.

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.

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.

Men Towering High Above Such Political Pygmies, Men Of Refinement, Of Culture, Of Ability, Are Jeered Into Silence As Mollycoddles. It Is Absurd To Claim That Ours Is The Era Of Individualism. Ours Is Merely A More Poignant Repetition Of The Phenomenon Of All History: Every Effort For Progress, For Enlightenment, For Science, For Religious, Political, And Economic Liberty, Emanates From The Minority, And Not From The Mass. Today, As Ever, The Few Are Misunderstood, Hounded, Imprisoned, Tortured, And Killed.

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

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.

If Love Does Not Know How To Give And Take Without Restrictions, It Is Not Love, But A Transaction That Never Fails To Lay Stress On A Plus And A Minus.

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

To-day Is The Parent Of To-morrow. The Present Casts Its Shadow Far Into The Future.

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.

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.

The Worker Who Knows The Cause Of His Misery, Who Understands The Make-up Of Our Iniquitous Social And Industrial System Can Do More For Himself And His Kind Than Christ And The Followers Of Christ Have Ever Done For Humanity; Certainly More Than Meek Patience, Ignorance, And Submission Have Done.

Thinking Men And Women The World Over Are Beginning To Realize That Patriotism Is Too Narrow And Limited A Conception To Meet The Necessities Of Our Time.

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.

As To A Thorough Eradication Of Prostitution, Nothing Can Accomplish That Save A Complete Transvaluation Of All Accepted Values--especially The Moral Ones--coupled With The Abolition Of Industrial Slavery.

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.

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.

True, We Have No Conscription; That Is, Men Are Not Usually Forced To Enlist In The Army, But We Have Developed A Far More Exacting And Rigid Force-necessity.

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.

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

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

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.

... The Modern Drama, Operating Through The Double Channel Of Dramatist And Interpreter, Affecting As It Does Both Mind And Heart,is The Strongest Force In Developing Social Discontent, Swelling The Powerful Tide Of Unrest That Sweeps Onward And Over The Dam Of Ignorance, Prejudice, And Superstition.

If I Were To Give A Summary Of The Tendency Of Our Times, I Would Say, Quantity. The Multitude, The Mass Spirit, Dominates Everywhere, Destroying Quality. Our Entire Life--production, Politics, And Education--rests On Quantity, On Numbers. The Worker Who Once Took Pride In The Thoroughness And Quality Of His Work, Has Been Replaced By Brainless, Incompetent Automatons, Who Turn Out Enormous Quantities Of Things, Valueless To Themselves, And Generally Injurious To The Rest Of Mankind. Thus Quantity, Instead Of Adding To Life's Comforts And Peace, Has Merely Increased Man's Burden.

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

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

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.

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

Idealists Foolish Enough To Throw Caution To The Winds Have Advanced Mankind And Have Enriched The World.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

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.

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 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.

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.

Every Society Has The Criminals It Deserves.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

I May Be Arrested, I May Be Tried And Thrown Into Jail, But I Never Will Be Silent.

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.

'rugged Individualism' Has Meant All The 'individualism' For The Masters, While The People Are Regimented Into A Slave Caste To Serve A Handful Of Self-seeking 'supermen.' America Is Perhaps The Best Representative Of This Kind Of Individualism, In Whose Name Political Tyranny And Social Oppression Are Defended And Held Up As Virtues; While Every Aspiration And Attempt Of Man To Gain Freedom And Social Opportunity To Live Is Denounced As 'un-american' And Evil In The Name Of That Same Individuality.

There Can Be No Freedom In The Large Sense Of The Word, No Harmonious Development, So Long As Mercenary And Commercial Considerations Play An Important Part In The Determination Of Personal Conduct.

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

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.

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 Spirit Of Militarism Has Already Permeated All Walks Of Life. Indeed, I Am Convinced That Militarism Is A Greater Danger Here Than Anywhere Else, Because Of The Many Bribes Capitalism Holds Out To Those Whom It Wishes To Destroy.

It Is Significant That Whenever The Public Mind Is To Be Diverted From Great Social Wrong, A Crusade Is Inaugurated Against Indecency.

The Persecution Of The Innovator And Protestant Has Always Been Inspired By Fear On The Part Of Constituted Authority Of Having Its Infallibility Questioned And Its Power Undermined.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Ask For Work. If They Don't Give You Work, Ask For Bread. If They Do Not Give You Work Or Bread, Then Take Bread.

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.

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.

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?

Direct Action Is The Logical, Consistent Method Of Anarchism.

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

When Primitive Man Heard Thunder Or Saw The Lightning, He Could Not Account For Either, And Therefore Concluded That Back Of Them Must Be A Force Greater Than Himself. Similarly He Saw A Supernatural Force In The Rain, And In The Various Other Changes In Nature.

Supernatural Forces

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 To Be Loved. Indeed, If Partial Emancipation Is To Become A Complete And True Emancipation Of Woman, It Will Have To Do Away With The Ridiculous Notion That To Be Loved, To Be Sweetheart And Mother, Is Synonymous With Being Slave Or Subordinate. It Will Have To Do Away With The Absurd Notion Of The Dualism Of The Sexes, Or That Man And Woman Represent Two Antagonistic Worlds.

Today Is The Parent Of Tomorrow. The Present Casts Its Shadow Far Into The Future. That Is The Law Of Life, Individual And Social. Revolution That Divests Itself Of Ethical Values Thereby Lays The Foundation Of Injustice, Deceit, And Oppression For The Future Society. The Means Used To Prepare The Future Become Its Cornerstone.

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

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?

The Reward In Heaven Is The Perpetual Bait, A Bait That Has Caught Man In An Iron Net, A Strait-jacket Which Does Not Let Him Expand Or Grow.

Let Us Not Overlook Vital Things, Because Of The Bulk Of Trifles Confronting Us.

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?

Our Institutions And Conditions Rest Upon Deep-seated Ideas. To Change Those Conditions And At The Same Time Leave The Underlying Ideas And Values Intact Means Only A Superficial Transformation, One That Cannot Be Permanent Or Bring Real Betterment. It Is A Change Of Form Only, Not Of Substance, As So Tragically Proven By Russia.

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.

Public School - Where The Human Mind Is Drilled And Manipulated Into Submission To Various Social And Moral Spooks, And Thus Fitted To Continue Our System Of Exploitation And Oppression.

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

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.

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.

'what I Believe' Is A Process Rather Than A Finality. Finalities Are For Gods And Governments, Not For The Human Intellect.

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

Everywhere And Always, Since Its Very Inception, Christianity Has Turned The Earth Into A Vale Of Tears; Always It Has Made Of Life A Weak, Diseased Thing, Always It Has Instilled Fear In Man, Turning Him Into A Dual Being, Whose Life Energies Are Spent In The Struggle Between Body And Soul. In Decrying The Body As Something Evil, The Flesh As The Tempter To Everything That Is Sinful, Man Has Mutilated His Being In The Vain Attempt To Keep His Soul Pure, While His Body Rotted Away From The Injuries And Tortures Inflicted Upon It.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

No Great Idea In Its Beginning Can Ever Be Within The Law. How Can It Be Within The Law? The Law Is Stationary. The Law Is Fixed. The Law Is A Chariot Wheel Which Binds Us All Regardless Of Conditions Or Place Or Time.

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.

Jealousy Is The Very Reverse Of Understanding, Of Sympathy, And Of Generous Feeling. Never Has Jealousy Added To Character, Never Does It Make The Individual Big And Fine.

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.

I Demand The Independence Of Woman, Her Right To Support Herself; To Live For Herself; To Love Whomever She Pleases, Or As Many As She Pleases. I Demand Freedom For Both Sexes, Freedom Of Action, Freedom In Love And Freedom In Motherhood.

Emancipation Should Make It Possible For Woman To Be Human In The Truest Sense. Everything Within Her That Craves Assertion And Activity Should Reach Its Fullest Expression; All Artificial Barriers Should Be Broken, And The Road Towards Greater Freedom Cleared Of Every Trace Of Centuries Of Submission And Slavery.

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

Salvation Lies In An Energetic March Onward Towards A Brighter And Clearer Future.

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

True, The Movement For Woman's Rights Has Broken Many Old Fetters, But It Has Also Forged New Ones.

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.

‎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.

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.

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.

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

I Feel Sure That The Police Are Helping Us More Than I Could Do In Ten Years. They Are Making More Anarchists Than The Most Prominent People Connected With The Anarchist Cause Could Make In Ten Years. If They Will Only Continue I Shall Be Very Grateful; They Will Save Me Lots Of Work.

Love Is It's Own Protection.

Someone Has Said That It Requires Less Mental Effort To Condemn Than To Think.

Leo Tolstoy, The Greatest Anti-patriot Of Our Time, Defines Patriotism As The Principle That Will Justify The Training Of Wholesale Murderers; A Trade That Requires Better Equipment In The Exercise Of Man-killing Than The Making Of Such Necessities As Shoes, Clothing, And Houses; A Trade That Guarantees Better Returns And Greater Glory Than That Of The Honest Workingman.

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

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.

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

Christianity Is Most Admirably Adapted To The Training Of Slaves, To The Perpetuation Of A Slave Society; In Short, To The Very Conditions Confronting Us Today. The Rulers Of The Earth Have Realized Long Ago What Potent Poison Inheres In The Christian Religion. That Is The Reason They Foster It; That Is Why They Leave Nothing Undone To Instill It Into The Blood Of The People. They Know Only Too Well That The Subtleness Of The Christian Teachings Is A More Powerful Protection Against Rebellion And Discontent Than The Club Or The Gun.

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.

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

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.

In Taking Out An Insurance Policy One Pays For It In Dollars And Cents, Always At Liberty To Discontinue Payments. If, However, Womans Premium Is A Husband, She Pays For It With Her Name, Her Privacy, Her Self-respect, Her Very Life, Until Death Doth Part.

What I Believe Is A Process Rather Than A Finality.

I Don't Care If A Man's Theory For Tomorrow Is Correct, I Care If His Spirit Of Today Is Correct.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

There Is No Hope Even That Woman, With Her Right To Vote, Will Ever Purify Politics.

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

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

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.

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Only When Human Sorrows Are Turned Into A Toy With Glaring Colors Will Baby People Become Interested - For A While At Least. The People Are A Very Fickle Baby That Must Have New Toys Every Day.

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.

The Individual Whose Vision Encompasses The Whole World Often Feels Nowhere So Hedged In And Out Of Touch With His Surroundings As In His Native Land.

"all Government In Essence," Says Emerson, "is Tyranny." It Matters Not Whether It Is Government By Divine Right Or Majority Rule. In Every Instance Its Aim Is The Absolute Subordination Of The Individual.

Anarchism Is The Great Liberator Of Man From The Phantoms That Have Held Him Captive; It Is The Arbiter And Pacifier Of The Two Forces For Individual And Social Harmony.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

The Custom Of Procuring Abortions Has Reached Such Appalling Proportions In America As To Be Beyond Belief... So Great Is The Misery Of The Working Classes That Seventeen Abortions Are Committed In Every One Hundred Pregnancies.

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.

The Inhabitants Of The Other Spots Reason In Like Manner, Of Course, With The Result That From Early Infancy The Mind Of The Child Is Provided With Blood-curdling Stories About The Germans, The French, The Italians, Russians, Etc.

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.

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.

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