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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?

-Emma Goldman

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The Greater The Mental

Emma Goldman

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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?

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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 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.

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Anarchism Is The Only Philosophy Which Brings To Man The Consciousness Of Himself; Which Maintains That God, The State, And Society Are Non-existent, That Their Promises Are Null And Void, Since They Can Be Fulfilled Only Through Man's Subordination.

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

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

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

Atheism ... In Its Philosophic Aspect Refuses Allegiance Not Merely To A Definite Concept Of God, But It Refuses All Servitude To The God Idea, And Opposes The Theistic Principle As Such. Gods In Their Individual Function Are Not Half As Pernicious As The Principle Of Theism Which Represents The Belief In A Supernatural, Or Even Omnipotent, Power To Rule The Earth And Man Upon It. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

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.

Anarchism Stands For The Liberation Of The Human Mind From The Dominion Of Religion And Liberation Of The Human Body From The Coercion Of Property; Liberation From The Shackles And Restraint Of Government. It Stands For A Social Order Based On The Free Grouping Of Individuals.

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.

When We Can't Dream Any Longer We Die.

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.

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.

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.

Every Society Has The Criminals It Deserves.

Patriotism Is A Menace To Liberty.

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.

Revolution Is But Thought Carried Into Action.

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 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.

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?

All Government, Whatever Its Forms Or Pretenses, Is A Dead Weight That Paralyzes The Free Spirit And Activities Of The Masses.

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.

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.

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.

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

"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.

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

"what Would You Do With The Lazy Ones, Who Would Not Work?" "no One Is Lazy. They Grow Hopeless From The Misery Of Their Present Existence, And Give Up. Under Our Order Of Things, Every Man Would Do The Work He Liked, And Would Have As Much As His Neighbor, So Could Not Be Unhappy And Discouraged."

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 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.

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.

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.

In The Struggle For Supremacy The Various Political Parties Outdo Each Other In Trickery, Deceit, Cunning, And Shady Machinations, Confident That The One Who Succeeds Is Sure To Be Hailed By The Majority As The Victor. That Is The Only God--success. As To What Expense, What Terrible Cost To Character, Is Of No Moment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Love Needs No Protection; It Is Its Own Protection.

What I Believe Is A Process Rather Than A Finality.

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?

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

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

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.

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.

It Is Safe To Say That No Other Superstition Is So Detrimental To Growth, So Enervating And Paralyzing To The Minds And Hearts Of The People, As The Superstition Of Morality.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

... 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Conceit, Arrogance, And Egotism Are The Essentials Of Patriotism.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

The Fathers Of The Church Can Well Afford To Preach The Gospel Of Christ. It Contains Nothing Dangerous To The Regime Of Authority And Wealth; It Stands For Self-denial And Self-abnegation, For Penance And Regret, And Is Absolutely Inert In The Face Of Every [in]dignity, Every Outrage Imposed Upon Mankind.

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.

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.

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

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

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

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

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.

The Average Mind Is Easily Content With Inherited And Acquired Things, Or With The Dicta Of Parents And Teachers, Because It Is Much Easier To Imitate Than To Create.

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 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.

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?

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

... 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.

The Most Disheartening Tendency Common Among Readers Is To Tear Out One Sentence From A Work, As A Criterion Of The Writer's Ideas Or Personality.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

There's Never Been A Good Government.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Religion, The Dominion Of The Human Mind; Property, The Dominion Of Human Needs; And Government, The Dominion Of Human Conduct, Represent The Stronghold Of Man's Enslavement And All The Horrors It Entails.

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

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.

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

The Most Violent Element In Society Is Ignorance.

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.

‎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 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.

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

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?

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

... 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.

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

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.

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.

Yes, Love Is Free; It Can Dwell In No Other Atmosphere.

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.

So-called Individualism Is The Social And Economic Laissez-faire: The Exploitation Of The Masses By The Classes By Means Of Legal Trickery, Spiritual Debasement And Systematic Indoctrination Of The Servile Spirit, Which Process Is Known As 'education'.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

The More Hideous The Mental Contortions, The Greater The Delight And Bravos Of The Mass.

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

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?

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