"What has Anarchism to say to all this, this bankruptcy of republicanism, this modern empire that has grown up on the ruins of our early freedom? We say this, that the sin our fathers sinned was that they did not trust liberty wholly. They thought it possible to compromise between liberty and government, believing the latter to be "a necessary evil," and the moment the compromise was made, the whole misbegotten monster of our present tyranny began to grow. Instruments which are set up to safeguard rights become the very whip with which the free are struck. Anarchism says, Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license"; and they will define and define freedom out of existence. Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man's determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations. On the other hand, 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."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Anarchists from the United StatesAtheists from the United StatesPhilosophers from the United StatesSocial anarchistsSocialist feminists
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltairine_de_Cleyre
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Voltairine de Cleyre
Voltairine de Cleyre (17 November 1866 β 20 June 1912) was an American anarchist and feminist writer and orator, who opposed statist policies, marriage, and the domination of religion in human sexual roles and women's opportunities. A proponent of libertarian socialism and the free thought movement, she was initially drawn to individualist anarchism but evolved into accepting mutualism and stateless communism, while formally labelling herself [[w:Anarch
79 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Voltairine de Cleyre β
Related Quotes
"Progress has to do with all mankind, not alone with the calm, the wise, and the patient. There is youth in the world,β¦"
"Written in red their protest stands, For the Gods of the World to see; On the dooming wall their bodiless hands have β¦"
"Gods of the World! Their mouths are dumb! Your guns have spoken and they are dust. But the shrouded Living, whose heaβ¦"
"Bear it aloft, O roaring flame! Skyward aloft, where all may see. Slaves of the World! Our cause is the same; One is β¦"
"The moonlight rolls down like a river, The silence streams out like a sea; And far where the eastern winds quiver, Myβ¦"
"And sometimes when I am weary, When the path is thorny and Wild, I'll look back to the Eyes in the twilight, Back to β¦"
"For the way is not strown with petal soft, It is covered with hearts that weep, And the wounds I tread touch a deeperβ¦"
"But the world moves on, and the piteous Earth Still groans in the monster pain; And the star that leads me points onwβ¦"
"Ah, not to a blaze of light I go, Nor shouts of a triumph train; I go down to kiss the dregs of woe, And drink up theβ¦"
"Years! Years, ye shall mix with me! Ye shall grow a part Of the laughing Sea; Of the moaning heart Of the glittered wβ¦"