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If there is a devil in human history, that devil is the principle of command. It alone, sustained by the ignorance and stupidity of the masses, without which it could not exist, is the source of all the catastrophes, all the crimes, and all the infamies of history.

— Mikhail Bakunin On the Program of the Alliance (1871)

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Notes from Wikiquote

As quoted in the leader to the film Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th century (2010)

Variants

If there is a devil in history, it is the power principle.

More quotes by Mikhail Bakunin

Everything will pass, and the world will perish, but the Ninth Symphony will remain.

To the Finland Station: A Study in the Writing and Acting of History (1940)

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.

The Explorers (1996)

Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

The Red Association (1870)

Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society.

Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)

FREEDOM, the realization of freedom: who can deny that this is what today heads the agenda of history?

The Reaction in Germany (1842)

All Mikhail Bakunin quotes →

Attribution

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