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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.

-Emma Goldman

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The Individual Whose Vision

Emma Goldman

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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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Crime Is Naught But Misdirected Energy.

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

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 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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

When We Can't Dream Any Longer We Die.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

If Elections Really Changed Anything, They Would Be Outlawed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

"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."

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

... 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

... 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.

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

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'.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Revolution Without Dancing Is Not A Revolution Worth Having.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Politicians Promise You Heaven Before Election And Give You Hell After

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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.

What I Believe Is A Process Rather Than A Finality.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

"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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Love Needs No Protection; It Is Its Own Protection.

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.

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.

Life Without An Ideal Is Spiritual Death.

Spiritual Death

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.

Methods And Means Cannot Be Separated From The Ultimate Aim.

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

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.

All Claims Of Education Notwithstanding, The Pupil Will Accept Only That Which His Mind Craves.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Politics Is The Reflex Of The Business And Industrial World.

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.

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.

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?

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.

... 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

It Is Organized Violence On Top Which Creates Individual Violence At The Bottom. It Is The Accumulated Indignation Against Organized Wrong, Organized Crime, Organized Injustice, Which Drives The Political Offender To Act.

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 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.

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 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.

Love Is It's Own Protection.

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.

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

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 Higher Mental Development Of Woman, The Less Possible It Is For Her To Meet A Congenial Male Who Will See In Her, Not Only Sex, But Also The Human Being, The Friend, The Comrade And Strong Individuality, Who Cannot And Ought Not Lose A Single Trait Of Her Character.

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 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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

Patriotism Is A Menace To Liberty.

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 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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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.

Understand One Another.

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

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.

‎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.

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.

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

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

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

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

There's Never Been A Good Government.

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Most Unpardonable Sin In Society Is Independence Of Thought.

... The Keynote Of Government Is Injustice.

Every Society Has The Criminals It Deserves.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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