Federica Montseny Quotes

Man is more disposed to domination than freedom; and a structure of dominion not only gladdens the eye of the master who rears and protects it, but even its servants are uplifted by the thought that they are members of a whole, which rises high above the life and strength of single generations.

Power never turns power down, ever, unless institutionally demanded.

The concept of power we admire is power over someone else.

Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

And I particularly like the whole thing of being boss. Boss and employee... It's the slave quality that I find very alluring.

He who demands does not command.

I always remember I'm the monkey and he's the organ-grinder.

Power over a man's support is a power over his will.

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

The effect of dominance is not always the result of an intention to dominate.

I think the greatest lesson that power has to teach us is, once you've had it, once you are a part of it, you're never free.

Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.

Then, are you master of us all? You didn't teach her that. Was she supposed to imbibe it from my quiet subservience?

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

Authority is not a quality one person 'has', in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

If an individual is born with the obligation to obey, who is born with the right to command?

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

You carry forever the fingerprint that comes from being under someone's thumb.

I think it is the easiest mentality for a human being to be either colonized or to colonize. The structure of either the slave or the master seems to be the simplest and the most relaxing one to slip into. Either you are a slave, and you don't have to think for yourself, or you're a master, and you don't have to work for yourself.

You know, you can't make the people do what you want them to do.

And this is the Anarchistic definition of the State: the embodiment of the principle of invasion in an individual, or a band of individuals, assuming to act as representatives or masters of the entire people within a given area.

One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures.