“All Men Are Equal and Free” – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

„All men are equal and free: society by nature, and destination, is therefore autonomous and ungovernable. If the sphere of activity of each citizen is determined by the natural division of work and by the choice he makes of a profession, if the social functions are combined in such a way as to produce a harmonious effect, order results from the free activity of all men; there is no government. Whoever puts a hand on me to govern me is an usurper and a tyrant; I declare him my enemy.“

Pierre-Joseph ProudhonProudhon on equality, freedom, and an autonomous society without government in this concise statement of anarchist philosophy.
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Pierre-Joseph Proudhon was a French early socialist and proponent of mutualist anarchism.

A programmatic quotation by Proudhon on equality, autonomous society, and the rejection of state authority.


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Quote image featuring Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's ideas on equality, freedom, and government

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon is regarded as one of the first advocates of mutualist anarchism. He promoted mutualism and federalism. He is also known for the phrase "Property is theft" from his work "Qu’est ce que la propriété?".

Quote by Alexander von Humboldt on freedom, diversity, and the impact of state interference on societyCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"The true purpose of man, not that which is dictated by changing inclinations, but that which is dictated by eternal and unchanging reason, is the highest and most proportionate development of his powers into a whole. Freedom is the first and indispensable condition for this development. (...) It is precisely the diversity that arises from the union of many that is the highest good that society offers, and this diversity is certainly always lost to the extent that the state interferes. It is no longer actually the members of a nation who live together in community, but individual subjects who enter into a relationship with the state, i.e., with the spirit that prevails in its government, and indeed into a relationship in which the superior power of the state already inhibits the free play of forces. Uniform causes have uniform effects. The more the state intervenes, the more similar not only everything that acts becomes, but also everything that is acted upon. (...) But anyone who reasons in this way for others is, not without reason, suspected of misunderstanding humanity and wanting to turn people into machines." Alexander von Humboldt
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Quote by Max Nordau about the burdens and exploitation of citizens under European governmentsCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"The form in which all European states are governed today allows the services demanded of citizens to be squandered on foolish, frivolous and criminal undertakings. The whim of individuals, the self-interest of vanishingly small minorities, all too often determines the goal towards which the efforts of the whole are directed. Thus the individual citizen works and bleeds so that wars may be waged which destroy his life or his prosperity, so that fortresses, palaces, railroads, harbors or canals may be built from which neither he nor nine-tenths of the nation will ever derive the slightest benefit, so that new offices may be created, which will make the state machine still more cumbersome, the friction of its wheels still harder, in which he will lose still more of his time, still more of his freedom, so that officials may be highly paid who have no other purpose than to lead an ornamental existence at his expense and to make his existence more difficult; In a word, he works and bleeds in order to make his yoke heavier and his chains tighter and to create the possibility of obtaining even more work and even more blood from him...." Max Nordau
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Quote about justice, equality, and abolition of privilege by Pierre-Joseph ProudhonCopyright © yoice.net – Quote Artwork
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"I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world." Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
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