Mikhail Bakunin Quotes

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.

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.

Therefore, if God existed, only in one way could he serve human liberty – by ceasing to exist.

He who desires to worship God must harbor no childish illusions about the matter but bravely renounce his liberty and humanity.

Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa.

If there is a State, then there is domination, and in turn, there is slavery.

From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots.

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.

This contradiction lies here: they wish God, and they wish humanity. They persist in connecting two terms which, once separated, can come together again only to destroy each other.

I am conscious of my inability to grasp, in all its details and positive developments, any very large portion of human knowledge.

To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.

People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.

Even the most wretched individual of our present society could not exist and develop without the cumulative social efforts of countless generations.

Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, an instrument of the will and interests of others.

Anyone who makes plans for after the revolution is a reactionary.

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.

Idealism is the despot of thought, just as politics is the despot of will.

Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.

By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who have cautiously done no more than they believed possible have never taken a single step forward.

The privileged man, whether he be privileged politically or economically, is a man depraved in intellect and heart.

Thence results, for science as well as for industry, the necessity of the division and association of labor. I receive and I give – such is human life. Each directs and is directed in his turn.

The liberty of man consists solely in this, that he obeys the laws of nature because he has himself recognized them as such, and not because they have been imposed upon him externally by any foreign will whatsoever, human or divine, collective or individual.

Look at Christ, my dear friend: His life was divine through and through, full of self-denial, and He did everything for mankind, finding His satisfaction and His delight in the dissolution of His material being.

The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.

The privilege of ruling would be in the hands of the skilled and the learned, with a wide scope left for profitable crooked deals carried on by the Jews, who would be attracted by the enormous extension of the international speculations of the national banks.