On rare occasions one does hear of a miraculous case of a married couple falling in love after marriage, but on close examination it will be found that it is a mere adjustment to the inevitable.
Emma GoldmanRead
If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Voting is often seen as a tool for change, but if it truly had the power to effect significant change, those in power would likely prevent it.
Emma Goldman's quote suggests a deep skepticism about the effectiveness of voting as a mechanism for social and political change. It implies that the established powers recognize the subversive potential of voting; hence, if it were genuinely a threat to their interests, they would obstruct it. This perspective invites us to consider the limitations of electoral politics and whether true progress can be achieved through traditional voting channels.
Themes
VotingPolitical ChangePowerSkepticismActivism
In practice
Example use cases
During a political rally, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of activism beyond just voting.
More from Emma Goldman
All quotes βNo one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.
Emma GoldmanRead
To the indefinite, uncertain mind of the American radical the most contradictory ideas and methods are possible. The result is a sad chaos in the radical movement, a sort of intellectual hash, which has neither taste nor character.
Emma GoldmanRead
John Burroughs has stated that experimental study of animals in captivity is absolutely useless. Their character, their habits, their appetites undergo a complete transformation when torn from their soil in field and forest. With human nature caged in a narrow space, whipped daily into submission, how can we speak of its potentialities?
Emma GoldmanRead
Anarchism is the only philosophy which brings to man the consciousness of himself; which maintains that God, the State, and society are non-existent, that their promises are null and void, since they can be fulfilled only through man's subordination.
Emma GoldmanRead
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.
Emma GoldmanRead
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