quotations about anarchy & anarchism
The anarchist is a criminal whose perverted instincts lead him to prefer confusion and chaos to the most beneficent form of social order.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
State of the Union Address, December 3, 1901
Turning and turning in the widening gyre the falcon cannot hear the falconer; things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS
The Second Coming
In short, Anarchism means a condition or society where all men and women are free, and where all enjoy equally the benefits of an ordered and sensible life.
ALEXANDER BERKMAN
"Anarchism", ABC of Anarchism
When a party is voted to power, it tends to believe that it has the right to do anything. They all ignore the spirit of the Constitution and the letter of the law to the extent they can.... That we still have a functioning anarchy is a stroke of luck. Let's be grateful for small mercies.
T. J. S. GEORGE
"Our Politicians Shout, Boast, Do the Rope Trick. Luckily Our Anarchy is Still Functioning", The New Indian Express, June 1, 2015
Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence.
AESCHYLUS
Eumenides
To hide behind culture or tradition to justify anarchy is a gross insult to the very people whose culture or tradition may be paraded to glorify criminal conduct.
MAHENDRA CHAUDHRY
speech, Jul. 15, 2005
Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.
THURGOOD MARSHALL
speech, Aug. 15, 1966
The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well.
GERMAINE GREER
intro, The Female Eunuch
Whatever its future success as a historical movement, anarchism will remain a fundamental part of human experience, for the drive for freedom is one of our deepest needs and the vision of a free society is one of our oldest dreams. Neither can ever be fully repressed; both will outlive all rulers and their States.
PETER MARSHALL
Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism
Anarchy, when it works to destroy authority in all its aspects, when it demands the abrogation of laws and the abolition of the mechanism that serves to impose them, when it refuses all hierarchical organization and preaches free agreement -- at the same time strives to maintain and enlarge the precious kernel of social customs without which no human or animal society can exist. Only, instead of demanding that those social customs should be maintained through the authority of a few, it demands it from the continued action of all.
PETER KROPOTKIN
Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal
If ever anarchy is triumphant, its triumph will last for but one red moment, to be succeeded, for ages by the gloomy night of despotism.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
State of the Union Address, December 3, 1901
An anarchist, therefore, is an individual who, whether he has been brought to it by a process of reasoning or by sentiment, lives to the greatest possible extent in a state of legitimate defence against authoritarian encroachments. From this it follows that anarchist individualism -- the tendency which we believe contains the most profound realization of the anarchist idea -- is not merely a philosophical doctrine -- it is an attitude, an individual way of life.
EMILE ARMAND
Anarchist Individualism as Life and Activity
On the whole, the term Anarchy is the proper one. It simply means opposed to the arbitrary rule of self-elected usurpers outside of the Individual.
HENRY APPLETON
The Boston Anarchists
Another Day, Another Hatchet Job On #Anarchism
SIMON SPRINGER
Twitter post, March 1, 2016
Anarchy is simply the handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny and despotism.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Address at the Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul, September 2, 1901
The association of anarchism with violence in the popular mind is due, in part, to the fact that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many anarchists embraced a policy of bombing and assassination. While this policy was a disaster both morally and strategically, it's worth keeping three things in mind:
1. This approach hasn't been dominant in the anarchist movement for over a century (and was controversial among anarchists even back then). Most anarchists pursue their goals through education, grassroots organizing, and building alternative institutions.
2. When anarchists did engage in violence, their aim was generally to spark resistance to oppressive institutions, not to sow chaos for its own sake.
3. In any case, the amount of violence that can be laid at the door of the anarchist movement is minuscule compared to the amount of violence perpetrated by the proponents of established authority, and in particular the state.
RODERICK LONG
"'Arrow' and anarchophobia", Augusts Free Press, February 10, 2016
The anarchists put the thing upside down. They declare that the proletarian revolution must begin by doing away with the political organization of the state. But to destroy it at such a moment would be to destroy the only organism by means of which the victorious proletariat can assert its newly-conquered power, hold down its capitalist adversaries, and carry out that economic revolution of society without which the whole victory must end in a new defeat and a mass slaughter of the workers similar to those after the Paris commune.
FRIEDRICH ENGELS
letter to Philipp Van Patten, Apr. 18, 1883
In the invisible lofts where the anarchists and pacifists defy money and the structure of society, where the lies are being examined and reversed, lies which are the allies of death, in these places is the poetry which is the language of God.
JULIAN BECK
The Life of the Theatre
Yes, anarchy is order, government is civil war.
ANSELME BELLEGARRIGUE
Anarchist Manifesto
Many anarchists today, including myself, are by-products of punk rock, where most become politicized from being exposed to angry, passionate lyrics of anarcho-punk bands, "do-it-yourself" zines, and countless other sources of information that are circulated within the underground punk distribution networks. Some are introduced to punk through the introduction to the anarchist social circles. Regardless of which comes first, the correlation between the punk scene and the anarchist scene is hard to miss, especially at most anarchist gatherings and conferences.
OTTO NOMOUS
"Race, Anarchy, and Punk Rock: The impact of cultural boundaries within the anarchist movement", Colours of Resistance