Emma Goldman, 1869 - 1940
Ca. 1911
Born: 27 June 1869 (O.S. 15 June), Kovno, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania)
Died: 14 May 1940, Toronto, Canada
Born in an Orthodox Jewish family, she was whipped by her father for her behavior. He felt that a Jewish girl needed only to know how to prepare gefilte fish, cut noodles, and make babies, so she was not provided with any education beyond elementary and what we would call middle school while they were living in Germany. The family then moved to Saint Petersburg. One of her half sisters had married and moved to Rochester, New York, in 1885 her oldest half sister and she followed, after a dispute with her father. A year later the rest of the family was forced to follow as anti-Semitic behavior intensified. She became active in anarchist causes, writing and speaking to large crowds, and frequently being arrested. She worked as a seamstress for quit a while, then went to Europe and gained a certificate that allowed her to work as a midwife. She was arrested once for advocating birth control, once for "inciting to riot" during a labor dispute, she was held for two weeks of questioning when President McKinley's assassin credited one of her speeches as his inspiration, and she was in prison for two years for advocating refusal to register for the draft in 1917. She founded and published Mother Earth from 1906 until it was shut down in 1917. She came to oppose all violence in politics, and was one of the first to publicly oppose prejudice against homosexuals. She was a committed atheist and an advocate of absolute free speech. Goldman was one of 249 "aliens" deported to the Soviet Union in 1919 (she was administratively stripped of her citizenship to make this possible), two years later she was writing about how poorly the Soviet system lived up to its promise. She suffered a debilitating stroke on 17 February 1940, leaving her able to hear but not speak. A second stroke followed less than a week before she died, the US allowed her body to be returned to Chicago for burial. Please note: "Red Emma" was an important character and a prolific author and deserves a place in our database. That doesn't mean I agree with all of her philosophy or any of her atheist theology.
Biography from Wikipedia and Biography.com
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Emma Goldman quotes:
Quotes found : 94 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 7) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
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- All claims of education notwithstanding, the pupil will accept only that which his mind craves. permalink
Emma Goldman - Anarchism is the great liberator of man from the phantoms that have held him captive; it is the arbiter and pacifier of the two forces for individual and social harmony. permalink
Emma Goldman - Anarchism, then, really stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. Anarchism stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals for the purpose of producing real social wealth; an order that will guarantee to every human being free access to the earth and full enjoyment of the necessities of life, according to individual desires, tastes, and inclinations. permalink
Emma Goldman - Anarchism and Other Essays (1910) - Christianity is most admirably adapted to the training of slaves, to the perpetuation of a slave society; in short, to the very conditions confronting us to-day.... The rulers of the earth have realized long ago what potent poison inheres in the Christian religion. permalink
Emma Goldman - "The Failure of Christianity" in Mother Earth (April 1913) - Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. permalink
Emma Goldman - "What is Patriotism?" speech at San Francisco (1908) - Consciously or unconsciously, most theists see in gods and devils, heaven and hell, reward and punishment, a whip to lash the people into obedience, meekness and contentment. permalink
Emma Goldman - Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living a life they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime. permalink
Emma Goldman - Anarchism, What it Really Stands For (1910) - Demonstrate before the palaces of the rich; demand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread. permalink
Emma Goldman - Speech at Union Square, New York (21 August 1893) - Do not all theists insist that there can be no morality, no justice, honesty or fidelity without the belief in a Divine Power? Based upon fear and hope, such morality has always been a vile product, imbued partly with self-righteousness, partly with hypocrisy. As to truth, justice, and fidelity, who have been their brave exponents and daring proclaimers? Nearly always the godless ones. permalink
Emma Goldman - "The Philosophy of Atheism" in Mother Earth (February 1916) - Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian. permalink
Emma Goldman - Have not all theists painted their Deity as the god of love and goodness? Yet after thousands of years of such preachments the gods remain deaf to the agony of the human race. permalink
Emma Goldman - "The Philosophy of Atheism" in Mother Earth (February 1916) - Heaven must be an awfully dull place if the poor in spirit live there. permalink
Emma Goldman - How long would authority ... exist, if not for the willingness of the mass to become soldiers, policemen, jailers, and hangmen? permalink
Emma Goldman - I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love, and freedom in motherhood. permalink
Emma Goldman - I don't care if a man's theory for tomorrow is correct, I care if his spirit of today is correct. permalink
Emma Goldman
Quotes found : 94 — (15 per page, this is page 1 of 7) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
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