Nothing stands in the way of the improvement of society as much as the notion that such improvement can be achieved by changing external forms. This false assumption focuses people’s actions on that which cannot help to improve people’s lives, and distracts them from that which can.
The life of society rests on conscience, not science. Above all, civilization is a matter of morality. If there is no honesty, no respect for rights, no respect for one’s duties, no love for one’s neighbor—in a word, if there is no virtue—then everything is in danger, everything collapses, and neither science, nor art, nor luxuries, nor industry, nor rhetoric, nor police, nor customs will be able to support a building that is floating in the air without a foundation. The state, based only on calculation and kept together by fear, presents a structure that is repulsive and fragile. It is only the morality of the masses that forms a durable foundation for any civilization, with duty as its cornerstone. Those who fulfill it in silence, setting a good example, are the saviors and supporters of that dazzling society that does not even know about them. Nine righteous men could have saved Sodom, but thousands and thousands of good individuals are needed to save the people from corruption and ruin.
— Amiel
The true line of thought lies not in the creation of new laws for secular or spiritual authority, but in the recognition of the moral dignity of every human being. Such a line of thought would assist the progress of humankind immeasurably more than all the unhappy attempts of the blind to lead the blind, wherein both fall into the ditch of dogma and authority.
— Yeats
The question is not at all about whether we should choose Christianity or socialism.
These two teachings are so different in their essence that it is impossible to even compare them with each other.
Christianity speaks of the eternal meaning of the whole universe, of divinity, and thus of the indestructibility of our spiritual essence, of the purpose of a human being and, incidentally, of the correct way to fulfill his material needs that flows from this.
Compared to Christianity, socialism deals with the lesser, secondary question of the material needs of the working class, which is unconnected to the primary question of the meaning of human life.
We can ask questions about the compatibility of Christianity with socialism, but we cannot ask ourselves which of the two we should choose, Christianity or socialism.
— Fyodor Strakhov
Anarchists are correct in their rejection of the existing order, as well as in the assertion that with existing morals there is nothing worse than the violence of the state, but they are rudely mistaken in thinking that anarchy can be established by a revolution. Anarchy can be established, but it can be established only by there being more and more people who do not need the protection of state authority, and more and more people who would be ashamed to use this power and to take part in it.
I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
— Thoreau
We, human beings, must understand that we are all the children of one Father, summoned here on earth to fulfill one common law; that every one of us must live not for himself, but for others; that the purpose of life does not consist in being more or less happy, but in becoming more virtuous and helping others to do the same; that to fight injustice and delusion everywhere we come across them is not only our right, but our duty also—the duty of the whole of our life, which we can neither neglect nor violate without falling into great sin.
— Giuseppe Mazzini
Anarchy does not mean the absence of institutions, it means only the absence of those institutions that force people to obey them through violence. It is as though there is no other way for a society of rational beings to organize itself than through violence.
Social problems know no borders.
— Victor Hugo
Accepting and submitting to false and violent laws makes it impossible not only to establish the truth, but even to reduce falsehood.
