Words matter. These are the best Emma Goldman Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.
No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.
Crime is naught but misdirected energy.
The most violent element in society is ignorance.
Free love? as if love is anything but free. Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love.
The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.
Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.
Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.
The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.
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.
If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.
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.
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.
I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
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.
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.
No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.
Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there.
Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism.
On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Puritanism, in whatever expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until the entire fabric is doomed.
Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.
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.
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.
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.
Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.
Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigoted and relentless in her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be.
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.
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.
Idealists foolish enough to throw caution to the winds have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.
One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
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.
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.
There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.
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.
Idealists are foolish enough to throw caution to the winds. They have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.
