John Henry Mackay Quotes

I am an Anarchist not because I believe Anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal.

I wish to say that we Anarchists have never changed our position. We are Anarchists as of old and still pursue the same ideals.

The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed.

… in the long run it is always the searching for a more secure guarantee of freedom which is the common factor among anarchists

Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.

Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

I believe that I have been basically anarchistic, anti-religion and anti-industry and business. In other words, anti-bureaucracy. I would like to see people behave well without having to have priests stand by, politicians stand by, or people collecting bills.

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.

… the true individualist must regard power over others as preeminently something to be loathed and shunned.

The anarchists are not promising anything to anyone. The anarchists only want people to be conscious of their own situation and seize freedom for themselves.

That is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and that it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met.

As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.

Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats.

I don't have a saviour or a royal family.

I don't believe in politics. I'm an anarchist, I guess you could say. I think people could be just fine looking after themselves.

Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own.

America is the most individualist, libertarian culture in the world.

I don't believe we should have any rulers. It is right to kill them.

Liberty is that principle of spontaneity, or self-determination, which constitutes us as agents, or which gives us a command over our actions, rendering them properly ours, and not effects of the operation of any foreign cause

I have been an anarchist all my life. I hope I have remained one. I should consider it very sad indeed had I to turn to a General and rule men with a military rod.... I believe, as I always have, in freedom. The freedom which rests on the sense of responsibility. I consider discipline indispensable, but it must be inner discipline, motivated by a common purpose and a strong feeling of comradeship

Many people say that government is necessary because some men cannot be trusted to look after themselves, but anarchists say that government is harmful because no men can be trusted to look after anyone else.

The Anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow authority.

The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution

We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves.

Anarchism as a political philosophy seeks to dissolve all forms of authority and power, and if possible, wishes their complete abolition.