Emma Goldman Quotes

Nothing would prove more disastrous to our ideas, we contended, than to neglect the effect of the internal upon the external, of the psychological motives and needs upon existing institutions.

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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The people are asleep; they remain indifferent. They forge their own chains and do the bidding of their masters to crucify their Christs.

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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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...

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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As to killing rulers, it depends entirely on the position of the ruler. If it is the Russian tsar, I most certainly believe in dispatching him to where he belongs. If the ruler is as ineffectual as...

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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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.

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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No sacrifice is lost for a great ideal!

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he...

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society.

Emma Goldman

Living My Life - 1931

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It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal. Revolutionary methods must be in tune with revolutionary aims. The means used to further the...

Emma Goldman

My Disillusionment with Russia - 1923 Existing in manuscript as "My Two Years in Russia" this work was published as My Disillusionment with Russia - 1923, and My Further Disillusionment with Russia - 1924 and finally as a complete one-volume edition - 1925

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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...

Emma Goldman

My Disillusionment with Russia - 1923 Existing in manuscript as "My Two Years in Russia" this work was published as My Disillusionment with Russia - 1923, and My Further Disillusionment with Russia - 1924 and finally as a complete one-volume edition - 1925

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