United States – Page 2 – Anarchist Quotes

"As early as World War I, American historians offered themselves to President Woodrow Wilson to carry out a task they called "historical engineering," by which they meant designing the facts of history so that they would serve state police."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Socialism, on the contrary, extends its function to the description of society as it should be, and the discovery of the means of making it what it should be."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Unless we realize that the present market society, structured around the brutally competitive imperative of "grow or die," is a thoroughly impersonal, self-operating mechanism, we will falsely tend to blame other phenomena - such as technology or population growth - for growing environmental dislocations."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Social ecology is based on the conviction that nearly all of our present ecological problems originate in deep-seated social problems."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"In the name of Purity what lies are told! What queer morality it has engendered. For fear of it you dare not tell your own children the truth about their birth; the most sacred of all functions, the creation of a human being, is a subject for the most miserable falsehood."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"If we do not do the impossible, we shall be faced with the unthinkable."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"In certain intellectual circles in France, the very basis for discussion - minimal respect for facts and logic - has been virtually abandoned."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Aggression is simply another name for government."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Education is a slow process, and may not come too quickly."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The ecological principle of unity in diversity grades into a richly mediated social principle; hence my use of the term social ecology."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Basically, revolutionaries never go far enough, and if they're not going to go far enough, they should stop upsetting people. Or killing them, for that matter."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"The Ottoman Empire was an ugly affair, but they had the right idea. The rulers in Turkey were fortunately so corrupt that they left people alone pretty much - were mostly interested in robbing them - and they left them alone to run their own affairs, and their own regions and their own communities with a lot of local self determination."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Where the state lacks means of coercion, it is important to control what people think."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"A consistent anarchist must oppose private ownership of the means of production, and the wage-slavery which is a component of this system, as incompatible with the principle that labor must be freely undertaken and under the control of the producer."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Cleansed of its leftist residues, anarchy - anarchism minus Marxism - will be free to get better at being what it is."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"A worker is a part-time slave."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to resist and to restrain the violence of the state."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"It is highly advantageous for the business world to foster hatred for pointy-headed government bureaucrats and to drive out of people's minds the subversive idea that the government might become an instrument of popular will, a government of, by and for the people."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"There is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth, the money, and the machines."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Did the seed of tyranny ever bear good fruit? And can you expect liberty to undo in a moment what oppression has been doing for ages?"

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Anarchism... teaches the possibility of a society in which the needs of life may be fully supplied for all, and in which the opportunities for complete development of mind and body shall be the heritage of all."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Libertarian socialism is properly to be regarded as the inheritor of the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Workers, the most absolutely necessary part of the whole social structure, without whose services none can either eat, or clothe, or shelter himself, are just the ones who get the least to eat, to wear, and to be housed withal."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"To demonize state authoritarianism while ignoring identical albeit contract-consecrated subservient arrangements in the large-scale corporations which control the world economy is fetishism at its worst."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Do not preach the straight and narrow way while going joyously upon the wide one. Preach the wide one, or do not preach at all; but do not fool yourself by saying you would like to help usher in a free society, but you cannot sacrifice an armchair for it."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Let every dirty, lousy tramp arm himself with a revolver or a knife, and lay in wait on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot the owners as they come out. Let us kill them without mercy, and let it be a war of extermination."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"We cannot help but believe that were every law, every title deed, every court, and every police officer or soldier abolished tomorrow with one sweep, we would be better off than now."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"Wanton killing of innocent civilians is terrorism, not a "war against terrorism.""

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"The idea of dominating nature has a history that is almost as old as that of hierarchy itself."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"If the United States was conquered by the Russians, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Elliott Abrams and the rest of them would probably be working for the invaders, sending people off to concentration camps. They're the right personality types."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"One who pays some attention to history will not be surprised if those who cry most loudly that we must smash and destroy are later found among the administrators of some new system of repression."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"To my mind a right-wing anarchist is just a minarchist who'd abolish the state to his own satisfaction by calling it something else."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Now for the remedy. It is in one word, the only word that ever brought equity anywhere - LIBERTY!"

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The spirit which animates Emma Goldman is the only one which will emancipate the slave from his slavery, the tyrant from his tyranny - the spirit which is willing to dare and suffer."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The population of the world is gradually dividing into two classes, anarchists and criminals."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"I believe in individual freedom; that's my primary and complete commitment - individual liberty. That's what it's all about. And that's what socialism was supposed to be about, or anarchism was supposed to be about, and tragically has been betrayed."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"We no longer like to think about bureaucracy, yet it informs every aspect of out existence. It's as if as a planetary civilization, we have decided to clap out hands over our ears and start humming whenever the topic comes up."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Unfortunately, a preoccupation with technical size, scale, and even artistry deflects our attention away from the most significant problems of technics - notably, its ties with the ideals and social structures of freedom."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Anarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Once for all, then, we are not opposed to the punishment of thieves and murderers; we are opposed to their manufacture."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"The critical human flaw is not that as a species we're particularly aggressive. It's that we tend to respond to aggression very poorly."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"I think my basic viewpoint is that everything the left and right say about each other is true. And the reason it's true is because they have so much in common."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"The demeaning system of domination I've described rules over half the waking hours of a majority of women and the vast majority of men for decades, for most of their lifespans."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Every anarchist, as an anarchist, would be perfectly willing to surrender his own scheme directly, if he saw that another worked better."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"I think it can be clearly proven that the mental constitution of woman, like that of man, has never failed to rise where restrictions upon equal freedom have been torn down."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don't have as many people who believe it."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"No one should ever work. Workers of the world... relax!"

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"What underpins every social conflict in the United States today is the demand for the realization of all human potentialities in a fully rounded, balanced, totalistic way of life."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Ask a method? Do you ask Spring her method? Which is more necessary, the sunshine or the rain? They are contradictory - yes; they destroy each other - yes, but from this destruction the flowers result."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Majorities, as such, afford no guarantees for justice. They are men of the same nature as minorities. They have the same passions for fame, power, and money, as minorities; and are liable and likely to be equally - perhaps more than equally, because more boldly - rapacious, tyrannical and unprincipled, if intrusted with power. There is no more reason, then, why a man should either sustain, or submit to, the rule of the majority, than of a minority."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"First, then, God, being all-just, wishes to do justice; being all-wise, knows what justice is; being all-powerful, can do justice. Why then injustice?"

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"It's one thing to say, "Another world is possible." It's another to experience it, however momentarily."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"The sign of a truly totalitarian culture is that important truths simply lack cognitive meaning."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Take the principle that two wrongs don't make a right. If you really took it seriously, that alone would knock away almost the entire basis for war and the criminal justice system."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Given a choice between anarchism and anarchy, most anarchists would go for the anarchism ideology and subculture rather than take a dangerous leap into the unknown, into a world of stateless liberty."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"The criminalization of debt was the criminalization of the very basis of human society."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Marxist schools have authors. Just as Marxism sprang from the mind of Marx, so we have Leninists, Maoists, Trotksyites, Gramscians, Althusserians... Now consider the different schools of anarchism. There are Anarcho-Syndicalists, Anarcho-Communists, Insurrectionists, Cooperativists, Individualists, Platformists... None are named after some great thinker; instead, they are invariably named either after some kind of practice, or most often, organizational principle."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"I don't vote, because I firmly believe that if you vote, you have no right to complain."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"At their very simplest, anarchist beliefs turn on to two elementary assumptions. The first is that human beings are, under ordinary circumstances, about as reasonable and decent as they are allowed to be, and can organize themselves and their communities without needing to be told how. The second is that power corrupts."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Direct action is the insistence, when faced with structures of unjust authority, on acting as if one is already free."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Do we call this the land of the free? What is it to be free from King George and continue the slaves of King Prejudice?"

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"If our fathers, in 1776, had acknowledged the principle that a majority had the right to rule the minority, we should never have become a nation; for they were in a small minority, as compared with those who claimed the right to rule over them."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"We were founded on a very basic double standard: This country was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

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

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?"

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Monopoly and privilege must be destroyed, opportunity afforded, and competition encouraged. This is liberty's work, and "Down with Authority" her war-cry."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"This brings us to anarchism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the state should be abolished."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"It is the secret scandal of capitalism that at no point has it been organized primarily around free labor."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Most anarchists are, frankly, incapable of living in an autonomous cooperative manner. A lot of them aren't very bright. They tend to peruse their own classics and insider literature to the exclusion of broader knowledge of the world we live in."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Of the exercise of a right power may deprive me; of the right itself, never."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man?"

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"When lifestyle anarchists call for autonomy rather than freedom, they thereby forfeit the rich social connotations of freedom."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Certainly, it is already no longer possible, in my view, to call oneself an anarchist without adding a qualifying adjective to distinguish oneself from lifestyle anarchists."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"In fact, communism is the foundation of all human sociability. It is what makes society possible."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Where crime exists, force must exist to repress it. Who denies it? Certainly not liberty; certainly not the anarchists."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Humanity can not be made equal by declarations on paper. Unless the material conditions for equality exist, it is worse than mockery to pronounce men equal."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"For, just as it has been said that there is no half-way house between Rome and Reason, so it may be said that there is no half-way house between state socialism and anarchism."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"A syndicalist is more likely to be a professor than a proletarian, more likely to be a folk singer than a factory worker. Organizers on principle, syndicalists are disunited and factionalized. Remarkably, this dullest of all anarchisms attracts some of the most irrational and hysterical adherents."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"The Puritans had accused the Quakers of "troubling the world by preaching peace to it." They refused to pay church taxes; they refused to bear arms; they refused to swear allegiance to any government."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Anarchists who endeavor to hasten it by joining in the propaganda of state socialism or revolution make a sad mistake indeed."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"The point social ecology emphasizes is not that moral and spiritual persuasion and renewal are meaningless or unnecessary; they are necessary and can be educational. But modern capitalism is structurally amoral and hence impervious to moral appeals."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"Under a system of permanent revelry, we will witness the Golden Age of the dilettante which will put the Renaissance to shame. There won't be any more jobs, just things to do and people to do them."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Catholics and other Christians are against abortions and they're against homosexuals. Well who has less abortions than homosexuals?"

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"The state is the most gigantic criminal extant. It manufactures criminals much faster than it punishes them."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Ironically, the world idealized by primitivists would actually preclude the radical individualism celebrated by the individualist heirs of Max Stirner."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"In vices, the very essence of crime - that is, the design to injure the person or property of another - is wanting."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"We need anarchists unencumbered by anarchism. Then, and only then, we can begin to get serious about fomenting anarchy."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"It's called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe it."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"Rights aren't rights if someone can take them away. They're privileges. That's all we've ever had in this country, is a bill of temporary privileges."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"Like it or not, the future of life on this planet pivots on the future of society."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another's. We see so much only as we possess."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"The sovereign, self-sufficient "individual" has always been a precarious basis upon which to anchor a left libertarian outlook."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"A man won't steal, ordinarily, unless that which he steals is something he cannot as easily get without stealing; in liberty the cost of stealing would involve greater difficulties than producing, and consequently he would not be apt to steal."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"The two principles referred to are authority and liberty, and the names of the two schools of socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other of them are, respectively, state socialism and anarchism."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"Naturally, any conqueror is going to play one group against another."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Our standard account of monetary history is precisely backwards. We did not begin with barter, discover money, and then eventually develop credit systems. It happened precisely the other way around."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"A government that shall punish all vices impartially is so obviously an impossibility, that nobody was ever found, or ever will be found, foolish enough to propose it."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"The anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow authority."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"Anarchism seeks to arouse the consciousness of oppression, the desire for a better society, and a sense of the necessity for unceasing warfare against capitalism and the State."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Everyone complains about politicians. Everyone says they suck. But where do people think these politicians come from? They don't fall out of the sky; they don't pass through a membrane from a separate reality. They come from American homes, American families, American schools, American churches, and American businesses. And they're elected by American voters. This is what our system produces, folks. This is the best we can do."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"What is a debt, anyway? A debt is just the perversion of a promise. It is a promise corrupted by both math and violence."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Anarchism is just the way people act when they are free to do as they choose, and when they deal with others who are equally free."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"That is what I have always understood to be the essence of anarchism: the conviction that the burden of proof has to be placed on authority, and that it should be dismantled if that burden cannot be met."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Cuba has probably been the target of more international terrorism than the rest of the world combined and, therefore, in the American ideological system it is regarded as the source of international terrorism, exactly as Orwell would have predicted."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"The point of public relations slogans like "Support Our Troops" is that they don't mean anything."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"If the existence of bullshit jobs seems to defy the logic of capitalism, one possible reason for their proliferation might be that the existing system isn't capitalism."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"Anarchism is the usher of science - the master of ceremonies to all forms of truth. It would remove all barriers between the human being and natural development."

— Lucy Parsons,
Anarcho-communist (1853 ‐ 1942)
Influential American labor organizer and radical socialist

"Unfortunately, you can't vote the rascals out, because you never voted them in, in the first place."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"There are differences in the parties - I don't think they're great differences, but they're real, and small differences in a system of great power can have enormous consequences."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"I stubbornly persist in my opposition to the state. But not because, as anarchists so often thoughtlessly declaim, the state is not "necessary". Ordinary people dismiss this anarchist assertion as ludicrous, and so they should. Obviously, in an industrialized class society like ours, the state is necessary."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"Anarchism means all sort of things to different people, but the traditional anarchists' movements assumed that there'd be a highly organized society, just one organized from below with direct participation and so on."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Liberty enters the field of journalism to speak for herself because she finds no one willing to speak for her."

— Benjamin Tucker,
Anarcho-Individualist (1854 ‐ 1939)
Leading theorist of American individualist anarchism in the 19th century

"I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"As long as the working-people fold hands and pray the gods in Washington to give them work, so long they will not get it."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Consumer debt is the lifeblood of our economy. All modern nation states are built on deficit spending. Debt has come to be the central issue of international politics. But nobody seems to know exactly what it is, or how to think about it."

— David Graeber,
Anarcho-Communist (1961 ‐ 2020)
Anthropologist, anarchist activist and author

"You may be wondering if I'm joking or serious. I'm joking and serious."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"With the development of industrial capitalism, a new and unanticipated system of injustice, it is libertarian socialism that has preserved and extended the radical humanist message of the Enlightenment and the classical liberal ideals that were perverted into an ideology to sustain the emerging social order."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you."

— George Carlin,
individualist anarchist (1937 ‐ 2008)
Stand-up comedian and social critic

"Post-leftist anarchists are striking off in many directions. Some may find the way - better yet, the ways - to a free future."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"A corporate elite of managers and owners governs the economy and the political system."

— Noam Chomsky,
Anarcho-Syndicalist
Linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.

"Our being is becoming, not stasis. Our science is utopia, our reality is eros, our desire is revolution."

— Murray Bookchin,
Anarcho-Communist (1921 ‐ 2006)
Philosopher, social theorist, author

"The true and legitimate meaning of the word treason, then, necessarily implies treachery, deceit, breach of faith. Without these, there can be no treason."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves."

— Henry David Thoreau,
Anarcho-individualist (1817 ‐ 1862)
Author, philosopher, naturalist and tax resister

"The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat."

— Lysander Spooner,
Anarcho-Individualist (1808 ‐ 1887)
American political philosopher and abolitionist

"A libertarian is just a Republican who takes drugs."

— Bob Black,
post-left anarchist (1951 ‐ 2020)
American author and anarchist.

"There are some whose nature it is to think and plead, and yield and yet return to the address, and so make headway in the minds of their fellowmen; and there are others who are stern and still, resolute, implacable as Judah's dream of God; - and those men strike - strike once and have ended. But the blow resounds across the world."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"Miss Goldman is a communist; I am an individualist. She wishes to destroy the right of property, I wish to assert it."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

"The social order of Spain ought to be overthrown; must be overthrown, will be overthrown; and Ferrer was doing a mighty work in that direction. The men who killed him knew and understood it well."

— Voltairine De Cleyre,
Anarcho-Feminist (1866 ‐ 1912)
American anarchist, writer, and feminist

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