Speak, speak, speak, & remember that whenever anyone's liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, & your place is where the attack is.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The law can inadvertently create more criminals than it controls.
Voltairine De Cleyre suggests that laws meant to govern behavior can have the opposite effect, leading to an increase in criminality rather than a decrease. This thought challenges the efficacy of legal systems and calls for a reconsideration of how laws are structured and enforced.
Themes
LawCriminalsSocietyJusticePower
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on criminal justice reform, this quote can emphasize the need to rethink punitive measures.
More from Voltairine De Cleyre
All quotes βAnarchism, to me, means not only the denial of authority, not only a new economy, but a revision of the principles of morality. It means the development of the individual as well as the assertion of the individual. It means self-responsibility, and not leader worship.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Make no laws whatever concerning speech, and speech will be free; so soon as you make a declaration on paper that speech shall be free, you will have a hundred lawyers proving that "freedom does not mean abuse, nor liberty license," and they will define freedom out of existence.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
The question of souls is oldβwe demand our bodies, now. We are tired of promises, god is deaf, and his church is our worst enemy.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Is it not enough that 'things are cruel and blind'? Must we also be cruel and blind?
Voltairine De CleyreRead
Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God. Try it, if you don't believe it. Seek through the legislative halls of America and find, if you can, the Government. In the end you will be doomed to confer with the agent, as before.
Voltairine De CleyreRead
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