Alexander Berkman Quotes

1870–1936 United States

Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870 – June 28, 1936) was a prominent Lithuanian Jewish anarchist, and a close associate of Emma Goldman. His adult life was largely spent in the United States, Germany and France.

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Random Alexander Berkman quote

8 quotes

"Man's inhumanity to man" is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep.

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912)

Liberty is an empty sound as long as you are kept in bondage economically.

What Is Communist Anarchism? (1929)

Once on the road of terrorism, the State necessarily becomes estranged from the people.

If your object is to secure liberty, you must learn to do without authority and compulsion.

What Is Anarchism? (1929)

Inhumanity is the keynote of stupidity in power.

No political rights can be of the least use to the man who is compelled to slave all his life to keep himself and family from starvation.

What Is Communist Anarchism? (1929)

Freedom means that you have the right to do a certain thing; but if you have no opportunity to do it, that right is sheer mockery.

What Is Communist Anarchism? (1929)

It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.

Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alexander Berkman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.