We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.
Mikhail BakuninThe right to unite freely and to separate freely is the first and most important of all political rights.
Mikhail BakuninPowerful states can maintain themselves only by crime, little states are virtuous only by weakness.
Mikhail BakuninNo 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 BakuninThe truth is that the whole life of the worker is simply a continuous and dismaying succession of terms of serfdom - voluntary from the juridical point of view but compulsory in the economic sense - broken up by momentarily brief interludes of freedom accompanied by starvation; in other words, it is real slavery.
Mikhail BakuninA person is strong only when he stands upon his own truth, when he speaks and acts with his deepest convictions. Then, whatever the situation he may be in, he always knows what he must say and do. He may fall, but he cannot bring shame upon himself or his cause. If we seek the liberation of the people by means of a lie, we will surely grow confused, go astray, and loose sight of our objective, and if we have any influence at all on the people we will lead them astray as well - in other words, we will be acting in the spirit of reaction and to its benefit.
Mikhail Bakunin