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Anarchy
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Crime
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Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
-Emma Goldman
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Dignity
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The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.
-Emma Goldman
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Education
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Envy / Jealousy
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Jealousy is indeed a poor medium to secure love, but it is a secure medium to destroy one
-Emma Goldman, Lecture,, 1912
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Fanaticism
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Government
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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.
-Emma Goldman, Anarchism: What It Really Stands For (essay)
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Heaven
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Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there.
-Emma Goldman
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Humanity
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Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!
-Emma Goldman
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Idealism
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Idealists are foolish enough to throw caution to the winds. They have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
-Emma Goldman
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Justice
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When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller as a favour.
-Emma Goldman
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Law
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Life
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I want freedom, the right to self expression, everybodys 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 comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.
-Emma Goldman
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Marriage
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In taking out an insurance policy one pays for it in dollars and cents, always at liberty to discontinue payments. If, however, woman's premium is a husband, she pays for it with her name, her privacy, her self-respect, her very life, until death doth part.
-Emma Goldman
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Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful molder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State and Church-begotten weed, marriage?
-Emma Goldman
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Morals
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Mother
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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?
-Emma Goldman
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Nation, Nationality, Nationalism
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Paradise, Utopia
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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People
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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.
-Emma Goldman
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Politics
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Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.
-Emma Goldman
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The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.
-Emma Goldman
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Books by and about Emma Goldman