Emma Goldman Quotes
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No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.
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Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.
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There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.
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The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.
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Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.
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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.
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One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.
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The spirit of militarism has already permeated all walks of life. Indeed, I am convinced that militarism is a greater danger here than anywhere else, because of the many bribes capitalism holds out to those whom it wishes to destroy.
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No sacrifice is lost for a great ideal! (p. 135)
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Those who will not worship at the shrine of money, need not hope for recognition. On the other hand, they will also not have to think other people’s thoughts or wear other people’s political clothes. They will not have to proclaim as true that which is false, nor praise that as humanitarian which is brutal.
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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.
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The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.
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Idealists foolish enough to throw caution to the winds have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
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All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves.
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If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
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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.
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The God idea is growing more impersonal and nebulous in proportion as the human mind is learning to understand natural phenomena and in the degree that science progressively correlates human and social events.
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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.
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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.
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Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
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Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there.
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Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.
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If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.
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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.