Goldman Emma quotes

" The most violent element in society is ignorance. " # Ignorance # Violence # Society

" The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. " # Freedom # Sanity # Hope

" Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another. " # Understanding

" Crime is naught but misdirected energy. " # Crime and Criminals # Love # Change

" When we can't dream any longer, we die. " # Dreams

" The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another. " # Understanding # Forgiveness # Love

" Ladies and gentlemen, I came here to avoid as much as possible treading on your corns. I had intended to deal only with the basic issue of economics that dictates our lives from the cradle to the grave, regardless of our religion or moral beliefs. I see now that it was a mistake. If one enters a battle, he cannot be squeamish about a few corns. Here, then, are my answers: I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made. As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian Czar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as an American President, it is hardly worth the effort. 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. As for the gentleman who asked if free love would not build more houses of prostitution, my answer is: They will all be empty if the men of the future look like him. " # Life and Living # Love # Politicians and Politics

" 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. " # Anarchism # Freedom # Power

" 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. " # Romance and Romanticism # Love # Age and Aging

" 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. " # Education # Generosity # Friends and Friendship