Skip to content

Between man and his social environment there is a reciprocal action. Men make society what it is and society makes men what they are, and the result is therefore a kind of vicious circle.

— Errico Malatesta The Method of Freedom: An Errico Malatesta Reader (2014)

Another quote →

More quotes by Errico Malatesta

We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves.

Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, "without government": the state of a people without any constituted authority.

Anarchy (1891)

Violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.

If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.

I think the question is not about "communists" and "individualists", but rather about anarchists and non-anarchists.

Note to the article 'Individualism and Anarchism' by Adams (1924)

All Errico Malatesta quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Errico Malatesta (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.