Words matter. These are the best Mikhail Bakunin Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
From each according to his faculties; to each according to his needs.
The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.
The privilege of ruling would be in the hands of the skilled and the learned, with a wide scope left for profitable crooked deals carried on by the Jews, who would be attracted by the enormous extension of the international speculations of the national banks.
Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa.
Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.
The communism of Marx seeks a strong state centralization, and where this exists, there the parasitic Jewish nation – which speculates upon the labor of people – will always find the means for its existence.
Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.
People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.
A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.
Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations.
Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.
Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty – by ceasing to exist.
If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is slavery.
I am sure that, on the one hand, the Rothschilds appreciate the merits of Marx, and that on the other hand, Marx feels an instinctive inclination and a great respect for the Rothschilds.
I bow before the authority of special men because it is imposed upon me by my own reason.
This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other.
The passion for destruction is also a creative passion.
Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.
Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.
But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person.
I am conscious of my inability to grasp, in all its details and positive developments, any very large portion of human knowledge.
Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary.
The freedom of all is essential to my freedom.
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Thence results, for science as well as for industry, the necessity of the division and association of labor. I receive and I give – such is human life. Each directs and is directed in his turn.
