Alexander Berkman Quotes

For as good habits of the people require good laws to support them, so laws, to be observed, need good habits on the part of the people.

We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave.

Our society, including the liberals, must understand that there must be order.

Civilization rests on the fact that most people do the right thing most of the time.

When you live in a community where people know you, it makes you want to be good and decent. It's a strong influence.

One of the damnable unhappy conditions of life is sometimes Government has to make people be civil.

In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.

In any society that is governed by the rule of law, some form of morality is always imposed. It's inescapable.

I did say that in-group, authority and purity are necessary for the maintenance of order, but I would never give them a blanket endorsement.

Nanny states are interested in social order. Daddy states are interested in public order.

In keeping people straight, principle is not as powerful as a policeman.

Since the state is a community of human beings it is as truly subject to the moral law as any private society.

Because just as good morals, if they are to be maintained, have need of the laws, so the laws, if they are to be observed, have need of good morals.

Conscience and public opinion enforce the laws. The police suppress the exceptions.

The nation becomes the master of its fate not only when it has many good sons, but also when it possesses enough strength to restrain its bad ones.

… every citizen of the republic ought to consider himself an unofficial policeman, and keep unsalaried watch and ward over the laws and their execution.

We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.

Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws—but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted—when we tolerate what we know to be wrong—when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened—when we fail to speak up and speak out—we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.

Law and order in our communities doesn't arise spontaneously.

I don't never have any trouble in regulating my own conduct, but to keep other folks' straight is what bothers me.

There is all the difference in the world between the nonviolence that the ordinary Christian should embrace and the duty of civic authorities to police their communities. The end of Romans 12 is quite clear about the first; the start of Romans 13 is quite clear about the second.

We must respect the rights and properties of our fellowman. And then learn to play the game of life, as well as the game of athletics, according to the rules of society. If you can take that and put it into practice in the community in which you live, then, to me you have won the greatest championship.

The state does not demand justice of its members, but thinks that it succeeds very well with the least degree of it, hardly more than rogues practice; and so do the neighborhood and the family. What is commonly called Friendship even is only a little more honor among rogues.

When mores are sufficient, laws are unnecessary. When mores are insufficient, laws are unenforceable.

If labor mainly, or to any considerable degree, serves the purpose of a police, to keep men out of mischief, it indicates a rottenness at the foundation of our community.