QuoteProject
When we ask for the abolition of the State and its organs we are always told that we dream of a society composed of men better than they are in reality. But no; a thousand times, no. All we ask is that men should not be made worse than they are, by such institutions!
Peter Kropotkin
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote argues against the notion that abolishing the State requires perfect individuals; instead, it emphasizes that we should not make people worse through oppressive institutions.

Peter Kropotkin's quote challenges the common argument that a stateless society can only exist if people are morally superior to their current nature. He asserts that the goal is not to push for an unrealistic ideal of perfection but rather to prevent societal institutions from exacerbating human flaws. By abolishing the State, the aim is to create a society that does not corrupt or degrade human nature further, advocating for a system that respects the inherent dignity and capabilities of individuals.

Themes

StateSocietyInstitutionsHuman NatureAbolition

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about government reform, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for less oppressive structures.

More from Peter Kropotkin

The law has no claim to human respect. It has no civilizing mission; its only purpose is to protect exploitation.
Peter KropotkinRead
Have not prisons - which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe - always been universities of crime?
Peter KropotkinRead
Man is appealed to be guided in his acts, not merely by love, which is always personal, or at best tribal, but by his perception of his oneness with each human being. In the practice of mutual aid, which we can re-trace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support- not mutual struggle- has had the leading part.
Peter KropotkinRead
It is only by the abolition of the State, by the conquest of perfect liberty by the individual, by free agreement, association, and absolute free federation that we can reach Communism — the possession in common of our social inheritance, and the production in common of all riches.
Peter KropotkinRead
Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor.
Peter KropotkinRead
No evolution is accomplished in nature without revolution. Periods of very slow changes are succeeded by periods of violent changes. Revolutions are as necessary for evolution as the slow changes which prepare them and succeed them.
Peter KropotkinRead

Similar quotes

I am God's vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.
Kanye WestRead
In principle as a philosophy, a model of organising society, Communism has to be respected. As regards the use of certain methods to advance social justice and greater regulation by the state, there are certain methods that are useful. What we need is a new society, a new civilization and convergence of all that is best in both [Communism and Capitalism]
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C. S. LewisRead
In matters of honesty, there are no shortcuts; no little white lies, or big black lies, only the simple, honest truth spoken in total candor... Being true is different than being honest.
Gordon B. HinckleyRead
What is it about childhood that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked it's hard to believe you ever were a child?
Mitch AlbomRead
Regard as free not those whose status makes them outwardly free, but those who are free in their character and conduct. For we should not call men truly free when they are wicked and dissolute, since they are slaves to worldly passions. Freedom and happiness of soul consist in genuine purity and detachment from transitory things.
Anthony The GreatRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.