Freedom, the realization of freedom: who can deny that this is what today heads the agenda of history?
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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We must not only act politically, but in our politics act religiously, religiously in the sense of freedom, of which the one true expression is justice and love.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Justice, equality, fraternity, prosperity of men... if God exists, all these things are condemned to non-existence.
            ----+- 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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Unity is the great goal toward which humanity moves irresistibly.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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That patriotism which tends toward unity without regard to liberty is an evil patriotism.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Liberty without socialism is privilege and injustice; socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Political freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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I am a fanatic lover of liberty, considering it as the unique condition under which intelligence, dignity and human happiness can develop and grow.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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If there is a state, there must be domination of one class by another and, as a result, slavery.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The state without slavery is unthinkable -- and this is why we are the enemies of the state.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick."
            ----+- 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 -+----
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The individual, his freedom and reason, are the products of society, and not vice versa: society is not the product of individuals comprising it; and the higher, the more fully the individual is developed, the greater his freedom.
            ----+- 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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By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The peoples' revolution will arrange its revolutionary organisation from the bottom up and from the periphery to the centre, in keeping with the principle of liberty.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. 
            ----+- 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.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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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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As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The state, therefore, is the most flagrant, the most cynical, and the most complete negation of humanity.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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This flagrant negation of humanity which constitutes the very essence of the state is, from the standpoint of the state, its supreme duty and its greatest virtue.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Since the birth of the state, the world of politics has always been and continues to be the stage for unlimited rascality and brigandage.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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There is no horror, no cruelty, sacrilege, or perjury, no imposture, no infamous transaction, no cynical robbery, no bold plunder or shabby betrayal that has not been or is not daily being perpetrated by the representatives of the states, under no other pretext than those elastic words, so convenient and yet so terrible: "for reasons of state."
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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We are firmly convinced that the most imperfect republic is a thousand times better than the most enlightened monarchy.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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In a republic, there are at least brief periods when the people, while continually exploited, is not oppressed; in the monarchies, oppression is constant.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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While we prefer the republic, we must recognise and proclaim that whatever the form of government may be, so long as human society continues to be divided into different classes as a result of the hereditary inequality of occupations, of wealth, of education, and of rights, there will always be a class-restricted government and the inevitable exploitation of the majorities by the minorities.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The state is nothing but this domination and this exploitation, well regulated and systematised.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The liberty of man consists solely in this: that he obeys natural laws because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been externally imposed upon him by any extrinsic will whatever, divine or human, collective or individual.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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If God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.
            ----+- 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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The second element of freedom is negative. It is the revolt of the individual against all divine, collective, and individual authority.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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I hate communism because it is the negation of liberty and because for me humanity is unthinkable without liberty. I am not a communist, because communism concentrates and swallows up in itself for the benefit of the state all the forces of society, because it inevitably leads to the concentration of property in the hands of the state.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Is it not plain that all these governments are systematic poisoners, interested stupefies of the masses?
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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The oppression of one is the oppression of all, and we cannot violate the liberty of one being without violating the freedom of all of us.
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter, but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity. 
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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Anarchism is "stateless socialism."
            ----+- Mikhail Bakunin -+----
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