Quotes by Emma Goldman

About Emma Goldman:

Emma Goldman was an anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

The pre-history of our species is hag-ridden with episodes of nightmarish ignorance and calamity, for which religion used to identify, not just the wrong explanation but the wrong culprit. Human sacrifices were made preeminently in times of epidemics...

Emma Goldman

The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world.

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian.

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

There is no hope even that woman, with her right to vote, will ever purify politics.

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

When we can't dream any longer we die.

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

Since every effort in our educational life seems to be directed toward making of the child a being foreign to itself, it must of necessity produce individuals foreign to one another, and in everlasting antagonism with each other.

Emma Goldman

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.

Emma Goldman

Free love? as if love is anything but free. Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love.

Emma Goldman

If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

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

Emma Goldman

Author Bio

  • NameEmma Goldman
  • Descriptionanarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches
  • BornJune 27, 1869
  • DiedMay 14, 1940
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionWriter; Philosopher