Quotes by Mikhail Bakunin

About Mikhail Bakunin:

Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism, and one of the principal founders of the "social anarchist" tradition. Bakunin's enormous prestige as an activist made him one of the most famous ideologues in Europe, and he gained substantial influence among radicals throughout Russia and Europe.
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

A jealous lover of human liberty, and deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

Mikhail Bakunin

A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts with his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself o...

Mikhail Bakunin

A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished.

Mikhail Bakunin

Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa.

Mikhail Bakunin

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

Mikhail Bakunin

Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the boot-maker.

Mikhail Bakunin

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.

Mikhail Bakunin

The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart.

Mikhail Bakunin

Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary.

Mikhail Bakunin

From each according to his faculties; to each according to his needs.

Mikhail Bakunin

The passion for destruction is also a creative passion.

Mikhail Bakunin

The communism of Marx seeks a strong state centralization, and where this exists, there the parasitic Jewish nation - which speculates upon the labor of people - will always find the means for its existence.

Mikhail Bakunin

The privilege of ruling would be in the hands of the skilled and the learned, with a wide scope left for profitable crooked deals carried on by the Jews, who would be attracted by the enormous extension of the international speculations of the nation...

Mikhail Bakunin

Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.

Mikhail Bakunin

Powerful states can maintain themselves only by crime, little states are virtuous only by weakness.

Mikhail Bakunin

People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.

Mikhail Bakunin

Do you want to make it impossible for anyone to oppress his fellow-man? Then make sure that no one shall possess power.

Mikhail Bakunin

We revolutionary anarchists are the enemies of all forms of State and State organisations ... we think that all State rule, all governments being by their very nature placed outside the mass of the people, must necessarily seek to subject it to custo...

Mikhail Bakunin

If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish Him.

Mikhail Bakunin

People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy. -- Circular Letter to My Friends in Italy

Mikhail Bakunin

Author Bio

  • NameMikhail Bakunin
  • DescriptionRussian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism
  • AliasesMichail Alexandrowitsch Bakunin; ?????? ????????????? ???????; Michail Aleksandrovi? Bakunin; Michael Bakunin
  • BornMay 30, 1814
  • DiedJune 19, 1876
  • CountryRussia
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Author