Anarchist Quotes
Anarchist Quotes

Authors List
Authors List


Josiah Warren

Josiah Warren, pioneer of individualist anarchism

Josiah Warren was born on June 29, 1798, in Massachusetts, United States. A musician and inventor, Warren became interested in social reform after experiencing the economic turmoil of the Panic of 1819. Inspired by the ideas of Robert Owen, he participated in the New Harmony utopian community, but left disillusioned with Owen's collectivist approach.

Warren went on to develop his own philosophy of 'individualist anarchism'. He argued for a society where individuals would interact through 'equitable commerce', a system based on labor notes representing time worked, which he believed would ensure fairness. He attempted to implement these ideas through several 'equity stores' and other ventures. Warren's ideas of individual sovereignty and cost the limit of price have influenced many in the anarchist tradition. His work 'True Civilization' is considered a foundational text of individualist anarchism.


Date of Birth: 1798-06-29

Date of Death: 1874-04-14

Country of Birth: United States

Political Ideas: Individualist Anarchism, Equitism

Quotes Available: 10



Quotes by Josiah Warren

The legitimate, the equitable compensation for the loan of money, is the cost of labor in lending it and receiving it back again.
What constitutes equity is the greatest question of all. It is the "unknown quantity" that even algebra has failed to furnish!
Governments involve the citizen in national and state responsibilities from which he would choose to be exempt; under these circumstances he can feel no security for person or property.
If cost is made the limit of price, everyone becomes interested in reducing cost, by bringing in all the economies, all the facilities to their aid. But, on the contrary, if cost does not govern the price, but every thing is priced at what it will bring, there are no such cooperating interests.
Infinite diversity instead of unity is inevitable, especially in the progressive or transitionary stage.
The equal exchange of labor would give as great a reward for honest and useful employments as for useless and fraudulent ones, and individual and unequivocal responsibilities (if for no other reasons) would induce a preference for the honest.
The state, the society, the institutions, the body politic, the nation, the system, or customs we live in, must not be permitted to become primary, but must be secondary!
Responsibility must be individual, or there is no responsibility at all.
Wars are, probably, the greatest of all destroyers of property, and they originate chiefly in two roots. First, for direct or indirect plunder; secondly, for the privileges of governing.
All social arrangements should admit of this freedom of choice of every individual and all subordination should be voluntary.


Non-Profit Anarchist Clothing Coop ★ Free Worldwide Shipping On ALL Orders!