Emma Goldman Quotes

Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.

Those who fear that we are losing our individualism couldn't be more wrong: Americans have never been more free to create and recreate themselves.

our society -- unlike most in the world -- presupposes that freedom and liberty are in a frame of reference that makes the individual, not government, the keeper of his tastes, beliefs, and ideas.

We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government--a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.

This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.

I believe in Liberty for all men: the space to stretch their arms and their souls.

Englishmen never will be slaves; they are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allow them.

[People] don't like the government telling them what to do or telling them how to live their lives.

I do not believe that the government should have its long nose poked into the private consensual relationships between people.

Liberty is always freedom from the government.

My job is to just express something that I want to express. And if I'm ahead or behind the curve, that's for others to decide.

We have to find places that we protect away from government so that we can all be the unique and interesting and, in my case, somewhat deviant people we'd like to be.

Since no one but you can know what's best for you, government control can't make your life better.

I choose to express myself.

I can connect with whoever I want to connect with in the world. And I can also write my own script. I don't have to follow rules. I can sort of just be unconventional.

Ultimately, the reason privacy is so vital is it's the realm in which we can do all the things that are valuable as human beings. It's the place that uniquely enables us to explore limits, to test boundaries, to engage in novel and creative ways of thinking and being.

You can wear whatever, be whatever, do whatever you want.

Freedom is our most precious commodity and if we are not eternally vigilant, government will take it all away. Individual freedom demands individual responsibility.

It's nice to create something you believe in. It's even nicer to dance to your own tunes sometimes.

The work of art is a scream of freedom.

My favorite thing is being able to follow my inspiration, and the freedom of being a writer is hard to beat.

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or in other words a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear.

What makes America unique in the world is the idea of the self-directed life.

In an over-organized society, the individual is altogether crushed out of existence. He gains the whole wealth of social thought around him and loses his own soul.