So long as tyranny exists, in whatever form, man's deepest aspiration must resist it as inevitably as man must breathe.

— Emma Goldman

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

— Emma Goldman

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.

— Emma Goldman

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.

— Emma Goldman

The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair but after all the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.

— Emma Goldman

The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved.

— Emma Goldman

The history of human growth is at the same time the history of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn and the brighter dawn has always been considered illegal outside the law.

— 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

The more hideous the mental contortions, the greater the delight and bravos of the mass.

— Emma Goldman

The most violent element in society is ignorance.

— Emma Goldman