27 Quotes by Voltairine de Cleyre

I never expect men to give us liberty. No, women, we are not worth it until we take it.

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.

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.

I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.

As to the American tradition of non-meddling, Anarchism asks that it be carried down to the individual himself.

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.

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.

A standing army is a standing menace to liberty.

Each choose that method which expresses your selfhood best, and condemn no other man because he expresses his Self otherwise.