{"author":"Emma Goldman","author_id":"Emma+Goldman","total_quotes":59,"quotes":[{"text":"Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["anarchy","forgiveness","understanding-others"],"id":1839,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"The political superstition is still holding sway over the hearts and minds of the masses, but the true lovers of liberty will have no more to do with it. Instead, they believe with Stirner that man has as much liberty as he is willing to take. Anarchism therefore stands for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws and restrictions, economic, social, and moral. But defiance and resistance are illegal. Therein lies the salvation of man. Everything illegal necessitates integrity, self-reliance, and courage. In short, it calls for free, independent spirits, for 'men who are men, and who have a bone in their backs which you cannot pass your hand through.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["anarchy","integrity","liberty","politics","resistance"],"id":4360,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"On coming to America I had the same hopes as have most European immigrants and the same disillusionment, though the latter affected me more keenly and more deeply. The immigrant without money and without connections is not permitted to cherish the comforting illusion that America is a benevolent uncle who assumes a tender and impartial guardianship of nephews and nieces. I soon learned that in a republic there are myriad ways by which the strong, the cunning, the rich can seize power and hold it. I saw the many work for small wages which kept them always on the borderline of want for the few who made huge profits. I saw the courts, the halls of legislation, the press, and the schools--in fact every avenue of education and protection--effectively used as an instrument for the safeguarding of a minority, while the masses were denied every right. I found that the politicians knew how to befog every issue, how to control public opinion and manipulate votes to their own advantage and to that of their financial and industrial allies. This was the picture of democracy I soon discovered on my arrival in the United States. Fundamentally there have been few changes since that time.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["america","democracy","laws"],"id":5455,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. 'I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things.' Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["anarchism","anarchy","beautiful-radiant-things","women"],"id":6402,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"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.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["history","progress","man "],"id":26425,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["helping","people"],"id":27761,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["feminism","women"],"id":28081,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["military","peace","second-amendment","war","world-peace"],"id":36796,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others. The inhabitants of the other spots reason in like manner, of course, with the result that from early infancy the mind of the child is provided with blood-curdling stories about the Germans, the French, the Italians, Russians, etc. When the child has reached manhood he is thoroughly saturated with the belief that he is chosen by the Lord himself to defend his country against the attack or invasion of any foreigner. It is for that purpose that we are clamoring for a greater army and navy, more battleships and ammunition.An army and navy represent the people's toys.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["patriotism"],"id":39809,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"},{"text":"The motto should not be: Forgive one another  rather understand one another.","author":"Emma Goldman","tags":["helping","people"],"id":42775,"author_id":"Emma+Goldman"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":59,"pages":6,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}