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Emma Goldman -
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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Poor America, of what avail is all her wealth, if the
individuals
comprising the nation are wretchedly poor? If they live in squalor, in filth, in crime, with hope and joy gone, a homeless, soulless army of human prey.
Emma Goldman
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It is organized violence on top which creates
individual
violence at the bottom.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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"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
.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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America had declared war with Spain.... It did not require much political wisdom to see that America's concern was a matter of sugar and had nothing to do with humanitarian feelings. Of course there were plenty of credulous people, not only in the country at large, but even in liberal ranks, who believed in America's claim. I could not join them. I was sure that no one, be it
individual
or government, engaged in enslaving and exploiting at home, could have the integrity or the desire to free people in other lands.
Emma Goldman
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Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the shackles and restraints of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of
individuals
for the purpose of producing real social wealth.
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.
Emma Goldman
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There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another, This conception is a potent menace to social regeneration. All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim. The means employed become, through
individual
habit and social practice, part and parcel of the final purpose; they influence it, modify it, and presently the aims and means become identical.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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Witness the tragic condition of Russia. The methods of State centralization have paralysed
individual
initiative and effort; the tyranny of the dictatorship has cowed the people into slavish submission and all but extinguished the fires of liberty; organized terrorism has depraved and brutalized the masses and stifled every idealistic aspiration; institutionalized murder has cheapened human life, and all sense of the dignity of man and the value of life has been eliminated; coercion at every step has made effort bitter, labour a punishment, has turned the whole of existence into a scheme of mutual deceit, and has revived the lowest and most brutal instincts of man. A sorry heritage to begin a new life of freedom and brotherhood.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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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To-day 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.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
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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.
Emma Goldman
Quote of the day
The words of kindness are more healing to a drooping heart than balm or honey.
Sarah Fielding
Emma Goldman
Creative Commons
Born:
June 27, 1869
Died:
May 14, 1940
(aged 70)
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