Quotes by Alexander Berkman

“When the highwayman holds his gun to your head, you turn your valuables over to him. You consent alright, but you do so because you cannot help yourself, because you are compelled by his gun. Are you not compelled to work for an employer? Your need compels you, just as the highwayman’s gun.”

“War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.”

“War means blind obedience, unthinking stupidity, brutish callousness, wanton destruction, and irresponsible murder.”

Violence is the method of ignorance, the weapon of the weak. The strong of heart and brain need no violence, for they are irresistible in their consciousness of being right.

In an absolutism, the autocrat is visible and tangible. The real despotism of republican institutions is far deeper, more insidious, because it rests on the popular delusion of self-government and independence. That is the subtle source of democratic tyranny, and, as such, it cannot be reached with a bullet.

Inhumanity is the keynote of stupidity in power.

War paralyzes your courage and deadens the spirit of true manhood.