Famous Emma Goldman Quotations

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"Crime is naught but misdirected energy."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society."
by Emma Goldman
"The most violent element in society is ignorance."
by Emma Goldman
"The strongest bulwark of authority is uniformity the least divergence from it is the greatest crime."
by Emma Goldman
"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. Anarchism is therefore the teacher of the unity of life; not merely in nature, but in man."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"Jealousy is indeed a poor medium to secure love, but it is a secure medium to destroy one"
by Emma Goldman
"Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!"
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally allowable emotion, it may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman."
by Aleister Crowley
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman
"The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice."
by Emma Goldman
"... woman's narrow and purist attitude toward life makes her a greater danger to liberty wherever she has political power. Man has long overco..."
by Emma Goldman
"All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves."
by Emma Goldman
"From infancy, almost, the average girl is told that marriage is her ultimate goal; therefore her training and education must be directed towar..."
by Emma Goldman
"In taking out an insurance policy one pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue payments. If, however, woman's premiu..."
by Emma Goldman
"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 he..."
by Emma Goldman
"Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world."
by Emma Goldman
"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 pro..."
by Emma Goldman
"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 ..."
by Emma Goldman
"The poor, stupid, free American citizen! Free to starve, free to tramp the highways of this great country, he enjoys universal suffrage, and b..."
by Emma Goldman
"The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue."
by Emma Goldman
"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."
by Emma Goldman


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