Quotes by Goldman, Emma

"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."

Goldman, Emma on dignity
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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."

Goldman, Emma on education
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"Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free."

Goldman, Emma on feminism
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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."

Goldman, Emma on anarchism
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"Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there."

Goldman, Emma on heaven
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"Poor human nature, what horrible crimes have been committed in thy name!"

Goldman, Emma on nature
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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."

Goldman, Emma on human rights
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"Idealists are foolish enough to throw caution to the winds. They have advanced mankind and have enriched the world."

Goldman, Emma on ideals and idealism
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"Jealousy is indeed a poor medium to secure love, but it is a secure medium to destroy one's self-respect. For jealous people, like dope-fiends, stoop to the lowest level and in the end inspire only disgust and loathing."

Goldman, Emma on jealousy
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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."

Goldman, Emma on law and lawyers
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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."

Goldman, Emma on marriage
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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?"

Goldman, Emma on marriage
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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."

Goldman, Emma on morality
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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?"

Goldman, Emma on mothers
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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."

Goldman, Emma on nations
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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."

Goldman, Emma on people
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"Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world."

Goldman, Emma on politics
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"The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue."

Goldman, Emma on politics
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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."

Goldman, Emma on radicals
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"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."

Goldman, Emma on romance and romanticism
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"It is essential that we realize once and for all that man is much more of a sex creature than a moral creature. The former is inherent, the other is grafted on."

Goldman, Emma on sex
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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."

Goldman, Emma on state
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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."

Goldman, Emma on causes
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"The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another."

Goldman, Emma on understanding
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"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another."

Goldman, Emma on understanding
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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."

Goldman, Emma on utopia
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"The higher mental development of woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character."

Goldman, Emma on women
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"Crime is naught but misdirected energy."

Goldman, Emma on crime and criminals
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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."

Goldman, Emma on life
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