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A right , in the abstract, is a fact it is not a thing to be given, established, or conferred it is. Of the exercise of a right power may deprive me of the right itself, never.

Voltairine de Cleyre

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Voltairine de Cleyre
Age: 45 †
Born: 1866
Born: November 17
Died: 1912
Died: June 19
Anarchist
Essayist
Feminist
Journalist
Peace Activist
Philosopher
Poet
Writer
Leslie
Michigan
May
Deprive
Right
Established
Thing
Abstract
Never
Exercise
Fact
Given
Facts
Power
Conferred

More quotes by Voltairine de Cleyre

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I die, as I have lived, a free spirit, an Anarchist, owing no allegiance to rulers, heavenly or earthly.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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The question of souls is old—we demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?
Voltairine de Cleyre
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There is one common struggle against those who have appropriated the earth, the money, and the machines.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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The paramount question of the day is not political, is not religious, but is economic. The crying-out demand of today is for a circle of principles that shall forever make it impossible for one man to control another by controlling the means of his existence.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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If you choose the liberty and pride and strength of the single soul, and the free fraternization of men, as the purpose which your life is to make manifest then do not sell it for tinsel. Think that your soul is strong and will hold its way and slowly, through bitter struggle perhaps the strength will grow.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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And sometimes when I am weary, When the path is thorny and Wild, I'll look back to the Eyes in the twilight, Back to the eyes that smiled. And pray that a wreath like a rainbow May slip from the beautiful past, And Crown me again with the sweet, strong love And keep me, and hold me fast.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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There is no society for the prevention of cruelty to women.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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If the believers in liberty wish the principles of liberty taught, let them never intrust that instruction to any government for the nature of government is to become a thing apart, an institution existing for its own sake, preying upon the people, and teaching whatever will tend to keep it secure in its seat.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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No one can hate petitions worse than I, and no one has less faith in them than I. But for my champion I am willing to try any means that invades no other's right, even though I have little hope in it.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license, and they will define freedom out of existence.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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[The Catholic convent] had been like the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and there are white scars on my soul, where ignorance and superstition burnt me with their hell fire in those stifling days.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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Capitalistic Anarchism ? Oh, yes, if you choose to call it so. Names are indifferent to me I am not afraid of bugaboos. Let it be so, then, capitalistic Anarchism.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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A man won't steal, ordinarily, unless that which he steals is something he cannot as easily get without stealing in liberty the cost of stealing would involve greater difficulties than producing, and consequently he would not be apt to steal.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
Voltairine de Cleyre
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What I say is, that the real non-resistants can believe in direct action only, never in political action. For the basis of all political action is coercion even when the State does good things, it finally rests on a club, a gun, or a prison, for its power to carry them through.
Voltairine de Cleyre