Quotes By Emma Goldman

Crime is naught but misdirected energy.

All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves.

If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.

Prostitution, although hounded, imprisoned, and chained, is nevertheless the greatest triumph of Puritanism.

The most violent element in society is ignorance.

The political arena leaves one no alternative, one must either be a dunce or a rogue.

On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.

Puritanism, in whatever expression, is a poisonous germ. On the surface everything may look strong and vigorous; yet the poison works its way persistently, until the entire fabric is doomed.

Idealists foolish enough to throw caution to the winds have advanced mankind and have enriched the world.

The motto should not be: Forgive one another; rather understand one another.

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

Merely external emancipation has made of the modern woman an artificial being. Now, woman is confronted with the necessity of emancipating herself from emancipation, if she really desires to be free.

The individual whose vision encompasses the whole world often feels nowhere so hedged in and out of touch with his surroundings as in his native land.

One cannot be too extreme in dealing with social ills; the extreme thing is generally the true thing.

No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time.

Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there.

Morality and its victim, the mother - what a terrible picture! Is there indeed anything more terrible, more criminal, than our glorified sacred function of motherhood?

When we can't dream any longer we die.

The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.

Woman, essentially a purist, is naturally bigoted and relentless in her effort to make others as good as she thinks they ought to be.

Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.

Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.

In the true sense one's native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.

The higher mental development of woman, the less possible it is for her to meet a congenial male who will see in her, not only sex, but also the human being, the friend, the comrade and strong individuality, who cannot and ought not lose a single trait of her character.

Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested - for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day.

Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces for individual and social harmony.

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.