Emma Goldman Quotes

We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect.

If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is slavery.

When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick.

A majority can do anything.

By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes to be his duty against the influences of authority and majorities, custom and opinion.

Government is force.

A democracy is a state which recognizes the subjection of the minority to the majority, that is, an organization for the systematic use of violence by one class against the other, by one part of the population against another.

The parliamentary regime leaves everything to the decision of majorities,--how can the large majorities beyond parliament be expected not to wish to decide? If, from above, they hear the fiddle screeching, what else is to be expected than that those below should dance?

With five votes and you can get anything around here.

What is government but an arrangement by which the many accept the authority of the few?

The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.

Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean - power over people, power to the State.

If the fools do not control the world, it isn't because they are not in the majority.

Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty.

What is this thing we call government? Is it anything but organized violence? The law orders you to obey, and if you don't obey, it will compel you by force - all governments, all law and authority finally rest on force and violence, on punishment or fear of punishment.

Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatens, quacks, and hustlers.

Whoever says State necessarily says domination, and, consequently, slavery; a State without slavery, open or concealed, is inconceivable: that is why we are enemies of the State.

States are violent to the extent that they have the power to act in the interests of those with domestic power

There is something about the state putting the power to bully into the hands of subnormal, sadistic apes that makes my blood boil.

You get the same order of criminality from any State to which you give power to exercise it; and whatever power you give the State to do things for you carries with it the equivalent power to do things to you.

If some small storekeeper somewhere decides he's not going to pay the money, the Godfather doesn't let him get away with it. The money doesn't mean anything to him, but he sends in his goons to beat him to a pulp. You have to establish credibility, otherwise conformity to your orders will tend to erode. International affairs runs in much the same way.

How long would authority ... exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen.

Adrian!You Used compulsion on that guy. That.... I mean, it's....." "Awesome?Yeah,I Know