40 Best Emma Goldman Quotes To Inspire Radical Change

Check out the best Emma Goldman quotes that reflect her bold spirit, radical ideas, and unwavering fight for freedom, justice, and human rights.

Emma Goldman was a fearless political activist, writer, and revolutionary anarchist known for her outspoken views on feminism, free speech, and social justice.

Born in 1869 in Lithuania and later moving to the United States of America, she became one of the most influential voices of her time.

Often called “Red Emma” for her fiery speeches and radical beliefs, Goldman boldly challenged the status quo, speaking out on issues like women’s rights, labor reform, gender equality, and personal freedom.

Through her writing, speeches, and activism, she highlighted the importance of independent thought, civil liberties, and the need for revolutionary change.

Emma Goldman’s life was marked by courage, controversy, and a deep desire to awaken people to injustice. Her writings and speeches inspire feminists, free thinkers, and human rights activists worldwide.

Here are the most famous Emma Goldman quotes that will encourage you to think boldly and stand up for what’s right.

Top 10 Emma Goldman Quotes

1. “When we can’t dream any longer we die.” — Emma Goldman

   

2. “Revolution is but thought carried into action.” — Emma Goldman

   
3. “The most violent element in society is ignorance.” — Emma Goldman

   

4. “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” — Emma Goldman
5. “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” — Emma Goldman

   

6. “I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.” — Emma Goldman

   

7. “A revolution without dancing is not a revolution worth having.” — Emma Goldman

   

8. “Before we can forgive one another, we have to understand one another.” — Emma Goldman

   

9. “Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty…” — Emma Goldman

   

10. “People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.” — Emma Goldman                                                                                                                                                                        

    

Best Emma Goldman Quotes

1. “If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution.” — Emma Goldman
2. “It requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.” — Emma Goldman

   

3. “The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.” — Emma Goldman
4. “I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.” — Emma Goldman
5. “Patriotism is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods.” — Emma Goldman
6. “The philosophy of atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical beyond or divine regulator.” — Emma Goldman
7. “Wealth means power: the power to subdue, to crush, to exploit, the power to enslave, to outrage, to degrade.” — Emma Goldman
8. “Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.” — Emma Goldman
9. “No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution… revolution is but thought carried into action.” — Emma Goldman
10. “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
11. “The ultimate end of all revolutionary social change is to establish the sanctity of human life, the dignity of man, the right of every human being to liberty and well-being.” — Emma Goldman
12. “Revolution is indeed a violent process. But if it is to result only in a change of dictatorship, in a shifting of names and political personalities, then it is hardly worth while.” — Emma Goldman
13. “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
14. “Some people never seem to learn from experience. No matter how often they had seen the lion devour the lamb, they continued to cling to the hope that the nature of the beast might change. If only the lion could get to know the lamb better, they argued, or talk matters over.” — Emma Goldman
15. “Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals.” — Emma Goldman

Famous Quotes From Emma Goldman

1. “Free love? As if love is anything but free!” — Emma Goldman
2. “Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.” — Emma Goldman
3. “Let us not overlook vital things, because of the bulk of trifles confronting us.” — Emma Goldman
4. “To-day is the parent of to-morrow. The present casts its shadow far into the future.” — Emma Goldman
5. “True emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the courts; it begins in woman’s soul.” — Emma Goldman
6. “What a strange development of patriotism that turns a thinking being into a loyal machine.” — Emma Goldman
7. “Give us what belongs to us in peace, and if you don’t give it to us in peace, we will take it by force.” — Emma Goldman
8. “In modern capitalism economic exploitation rather than political oppression is the real enemy of the people.” — Emma Goldman
9. “’What I believe’ is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect.” — Emma Goldman
10. “How long would authority … exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen.” — Emma Goldman
11. “If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.” — Emma Goldman
12. “Love needs no protection; it is its own protection. So long as love begets life no child is deserted, or hungry, or famished for the want of affection. I know this to be true.” — Emma Goldman
13. “Nothing would prove more disastrous to our ideas, we contended, than to neglect the effect of the internal upon the external, of the psychological motives and needs upon existing institutions.” — Emma Goldman
14. “It is organized violence on top which creates individual violence at the bottom. It is the accumulated indignation against organized wrong, organized crime, organized injustice, which drives the political offender to act.” — Emma Goldman
15. “Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government.” — Emma Goldman

Conclusion

What are your favorite Emma Goldman quotes and sayings (with images) listed above? If there is a quote that we’ve missed then let us know in the comments section below.

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