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The state is a force incarnate. Worse, it is the silly parading of force. It never seeks to prevail by persuasion. Whenever it thrusts its finger into anything it does so in the most unfriendly way. Its essence is command and compulsion.

Mikhail Bakunin

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Mikhail Bakunin
Age: 62 †
Born: 1814
Born: May 30
Died: 1876
Died: July 1
Anarchist
Philosopher
Politician
Writer
Michael Bakunin
Michail Alexandrovich Bakunin
A. M. Bakunin
Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin
Anything
Fingers
Thrust
Way
Worse
Compulsion
Thrusts
Never
Essence
Seeks
Parading
Liberty
Finger
Incarnate
State
Libertarian
Unfriendly
Force
Command
Prevail
Doe
Silly
Libertarianism
States
Whenever
Persuasion

More quotes by Mikhail Bakunin

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As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
Mikhail Bakunin
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Revolution requires extensive and widespread destruction, a fecund and renovating destruction, since in this way and only this way are new worlds born
Mikhail Bakunin
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...one exploiting sect, one people of leeches, one single devouring parasite closely and intimately bound together not only across national boundaries, but also across all divergences of political opinion ... [Jews have] that mercantile passion which constitutes one of the principle traits of their national character
Mikhail Bakunin
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The star of revolution will rise high above the streets of Moscow, from a sea of blood and fire, and turn into a lodestar to lead a liberated humanity
Mikhail Bakunin
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Bourgeois patriotism, as I view it, is only a very shabby, very narrow, very mercenary, and deeply antihuman passion, having for its object the preservation and maintenance of the power of the national state-that is, the mainstay of all the priveleges of the exploiters throughout the nation.
Mikhail Bakunin
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The communism of Marx seeks a strong state centralization, and where this exists, there the parasitic Jewish nation - which speculates upon the labor of people - will always find the means for its existence.
Mikhail Bakunin
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[Jehovah is] certainly the most jealous, the most vain, the most ferocious, the most unjust, the most bloodthirsty, the most despotic, and the most hostile to human dignity and liberty.
Mikhail Bakunin
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Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary.
Mikhail Bakunin
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I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen... I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Mikhail Bakunin
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In every State, the government is nothing but a permanent conspiracy on the part of the minority against the majority, which it enslaves and fleeces.
Mikhail Bakunin
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If there be a human being who is freer than I, then I shall necessarily become his slave. If I am freer than any other, then he will become my slave. Therefore equality is an absolutely necessary condition of freedom.
Mikhail Bakunin
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Intellectual slavery, of whatever nature it may be, will always have as a natural result both political and social slavery.
Mikhail Bakunin
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A divine falsehood is more powerful than any human truth.
Mikhail Bakunin
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But I recognize no infallible authority, even in special questions consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of such or such an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person.
Mikhail Bakunin
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Real humanity presents a mixture of all that is most sublime and beautiful with all that is vilest and most monstrous in the world.
Mikhail Bakunin
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No theory, no ready-made system, no book that has ever been written will save the world. I cleave to no system. I am a true seeker.
Mikhail Bakunin
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We must spread our principles, not with words but with deeds, for this is the most popular, the most potent, and the most irresistible form of propaganda.
Mikhail Bakunin
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A person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts from his deepest convictions.
Mikhail Bakunin
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A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.
Mikhail Bakunin
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Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations.
Mikhail Bakunin