Johann Most Quotes

• Is anarchism possible? The failure of attempts to attain freedom does not mean the cause is lost.

  Johann Most

• Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

  Johann Most

• If we hope and even assume that the social question will be answered through communism, and not in this or that country but in the world, any thought of centralization must be a monstrosity.

  Johann Most

• If on the one side we do not harbor the illusion that the entire proletariat must be enlightened before it can be called into battle, so on the other we do not doubt that as much enlightenment as possible must be produced with oral and printed agitation.

  Johann Most

• He who negates present society, and seeks social conditions based on the sharing of property, is a revolutionary whether he calls himself an anarchist or a communist.

  Johann Most

• ‘God’ – as revealed in his book of edicts and narratives is practically an idiot. He has nothing to say that any sensible person should want to listen to.

  Johann Most

• Fortunately, no country was ever more suited for anarchist agitation than present-day America.

  Johann Most

• As set forth by theologians, the idea of ‘God’ is an argument that assumes its own conclusions, and proves nothing.

  Johann Most

• Anarchists prepare for social revolution and use every means- speech, writing, or deed, whichever is more to the point – to accelerate revolutionary development.

  Johann Most

• Above all, what socialist, without flushing with shame, maintains he is not a revolutionary? We say: none!.

  Johann Most

• Anarchists are socialists because they want the improvement of society, and they are communists because they are convinced that such a transformation of society can only result from the establishment of a commonwealth of property.

  Johann Most

• It is the lash of hunger which compels the poor man to submit. In order to live he must sell – ‘voluntarily’ sell – himself every day and hour to the ‘beast of property.’

  Johann Most

• The aims of anarchists and true communists are identical.

  Johann Most

• The anarchists, on behalf of the proletariat, therefore consider it necessary to show the proletariat that it will have to win a gigantic battle before it realizes its goals.

  Johann Most

• The existing system will be quickest and most radically overthrown by the annihilation of its exponents. Therefore, massacres of the enemies of the people must be set in motion.

  Johann Most

• The god of the Christians, as we have seen, is the god who makes promises only to break them; who sends them pestilence and disease in order to heal them; a god who demoralizes mankind in order to improve it.

  Johann Most

• They make revolutionary propaganda because they know the privileged class can never be overturned peacefully.

  Johann Most

• We need do no more than repeat: only under communism does the individual become himself and lead his own life.

  Johann Most

• While we have entertained the contention that a deed may make more propaganda than hundreds of speeches, thousands of articles, and tens of thousands of pamphlets, we have held that an arbitrary act of violence will not necessarily have such an effect.

  Johann Most

• Whoever looks at America will see: the ship is powered by stupidity, corruption, or prejudice.

  Johann Most

Johann Most (20)

Birth:	5th February, 1846
Death:	17th March, 1906
Nationality:	American, German
Profession:	Revolutionary

About

Johann Joseph "Hans" Most was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. He was a German-American revolutionary and newspaper editor. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "Propaganda of the deed". In 1867, he moved to Vienna where he joined the International Working Men's Association. A committed socialist he became a well-known street orator. Most was jailed three times for his political activities and in 1871 he was deported from Austria. He returned to Germany where he worked as a journalist. In 1874, he was elected to the German Reichstag but after the passing of anti-socialist laws he was forced to flee the country. In 1878 Most arrived in London where he converted to anarchism. In 1882, he emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. He wrote several books include: Science of Revolutionary Warfare, and Military Science for Revolutionaires.

Related Authors

• Huey Percy Newton
• Emiliano Zapata
• Fred Hampton
• Sun Yat-sen
• Fidel Castro
• Sue Sanders
• Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
• Marquis de Lafayette
• Sir William Wallace
• Henry Rutgers

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 23rd January

Births

• 1783 - Stendhal
• 1923 - Walter Miller
• 1944 - Rutger Hauer
• 1953 - Antonio Villaraigosa
• 1962 - Richard Roxburgh

Deaths

• 2002 - Robert Nozick
• 2007 - Ryszard Kapuscinski
• 1997 - Richard Berry
• 1995 - Ken Hill
• 1989 - Salvador Dalí