--- title: "4 Anarchism Quotes By Pyotr Kropotkin" description: "4 Anarchism quotes by Pyotr Kropotkin. Plus more from Pyotr Kropotkin and more Anarchism sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg" --- > [“Having been brought up in a serf-owner's family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with a great…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s-family-i-entered-active-life/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg) > [“If all the men and women in the countryside had their daily bread assured, and their daily needs already satisfied, who would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countryside-had-their-daily-bread/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countrys_2284833.jpg) > [“Of course the no-government ethics will meet with at least as many objections as the no-capital economics. Our minds have been so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will-meet-with-at-least-as-many/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will_2568911.jpg) > [“The anarchists cannot consider, like the collectivists, that a remuneration which would be proportionate to the hours of labour spent by each…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the-collectivists-that-a/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/169/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the_3062935.jpg) ## Other authors on Anarchism - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b009/author-emma-goldman-33179.jpg) Emma Goldman 37 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/emma-goldman/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-murray-bookchin-69610.jpg) Murray Bookchin 23 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/murray-bookchin/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-noam-chomsky-71799.jpg) Noam Chomsky 16 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/noam-chomsky/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-april-gornik-14426.jpg) Rudolf Rocker 14 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/rudolf-rocker/) - [Errico Malatesta 12 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/errico-malatesta/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b005/author-benjamin-tucker-17200.jpg) Benjamin Tucker 10 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/benjamin-tucker/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b024/author-voltairine-de-cleyre-94067.jpg) Voltairine de Cleyre 8 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/voltairine-de-cleyre/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-howard-zinn-42481.jpg) Howard Zinn 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/howard-zinn/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b009/author-ernst-junger-33887.jpg) Ernst Jünger 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/ernst-junger/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-david-graeber-27506.jpg) David Graeber 7 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/david-graeber/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-pierrejoseph-proudhon-75664.jpg) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/pierre-joseph-proudhon/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b013/author-johannes-von-tepl-50817.jpg) Anup Joshi 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/anup-joshi/) ## More by Pyotr Kropotkin > [“Wage-work is serf-work; it cannot, it must not, produce all that it could produce. And it is high time to disbelieve the legend which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/wage-work-is-serf-work-it-cannot-it-must-not-produce-all-that-it/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“They say, 'No private property', and immediately after strive to maintain private property in its daily manifestations. 'You shall be a commune as far…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/they-say-no-private-property-and-immediately-after-strive-to-maintain/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Because, to do manual work now, means in reality to shut yourself up for ten or twelve hours a day in an unhealthy workshop,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/because-to-do-manual-work-now-means-in-reality-to-shut-yourself-up/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“In our civilized societies we are rich. Why then are the many poor? Why this painful drudgery for the masses? Why, even to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/in-our-civilized-societies-we-are-rich-why-then-are-the-many-poor-why/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“No, plenty for all is not a dream – though it was a dream indeed in those days when man, for all his pains,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/no-plenty-for-all-is-not-a-dream-though-it-was-a-dream-indeed-in/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Whole columns are devoted to parliamentary debates and to political intrigues; while the vast everyday life of a nation appears only in the columns…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/whole-columns-are-devoted-to-parliamentary-debates-and-to-political/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“All that was once looked on as a function of the government is today called in question. Things are arranged more easily and more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/all-that-was-once-looked-on-as-a-function-of-the-government-is-today/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Very often the idler is but a man to whom it is repugnant to spend all his life making the eighteenth part of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/very-often-the-idler-is-but-a-man-to-whom-it-is-repugnant-to-spend/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“What interest, in fact, can this depressing work have for the worker, when he knows that the fate awaiting him from the cradle to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/what-interest-in-fact-can-this-depressing-work-have-for-the-worker/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“The history of human thought recalls the swinging of a pendulum which takes centuries to swing. After a long period of slumber comes a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/the-history-of-human-thought-recalls-the-swinging-of-a-pendulum-which/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Should an authoritarian Socialist society ever succeed in establishing itself, it could not last; general discontent would soon force it to break up, or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/should-an-authoritarian-socialist-society-ever-succeed-in/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Well-being for all is not a dream.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/well-being-for-all-is-not-a-dream/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Collectivists begin by proclaiming a revolutionary principle - the abolition of private property - and then they deny it, no sooner than proclaimed, by…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/collectivists-begin-by-proclaiming-a-revolutionary-principle-the/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“Poverty, we have said elsewhere, was the primary cause of wealth. It was poverty that created the first capitalist; because, before accumulating "surplus value,"…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/poverty-we-have-said-elsewhere-was-the-primary-cause-of-wealth-it-was/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) > [“That we are utopians is well known. So utopian are we that we go the length of believing that the revolution can and ought…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/that-we-are-utopians-is-well-known-so-utopian-are-we-that-we-go-the/) [Pyotr Kropotkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pyotr-kropotkin/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/pyotr-kropotkin/#itemlist", "name": "4 Anarchism Quotes By Pyotr Kropotkin", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Having been brought up in a serf-owner's family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with a great deal of confidence in the necessity of commanding, ordering, scolding, punishing, and the like. But when, at an early stage, I had to manage serious enterprises... I began to appreciate the difference between acting on the principle of command and discipline, and acting on the principle of common understanding... Men of initiative are required everywhere; but once the impulse has been given, the enterprise must be conducted, ...not in military fashion, but in a sort of communal way.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pyotr Kropotkin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s-family-i-entered-active-life/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Having been brought up in a serf-owner's family, I entered active life, like all young men of my time, with…” — Pyotr Kropotkin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“If all the men and women in the countryside had their daily bread assured, and their daily needs already satisfied, who would work for our capitalist at a wage of half a crown a day, while the commodities one produces in a day sell in the market for a crown or more?”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pyotr Kropotkin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countryside-had-their-daily-bread/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countrys_2284833.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countrys_2284833.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b0d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_if-all-the-men-and-women-in-the-countrys_2284833.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If all the men and women in the countryside had their daily bread assured, and their daily needs already…” — Pyotr Kropotkin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Of course the no-government ethics will meet with at least as many objections as the no-capital economics. Our minds have been so nurtured in prejudices as to the providential functions of government that anarchist ideas must be received with distrust. Our whole education, from childhood to the grave, nurtures the belief in the necessity of a government and its beneficial effects. Systems of philosophy have been elaborated to support this view; history has been written from this standpoint; theories of law have been circulated and taught for the same purpose. All politics are based on the same principle, each politician saying to people he wants to support him: “Give me the governmental power; I will, I can, relieve you from the hardships of your present life.” All our education is permeated with the same teachings. We may open any book of sociology, history, law, or ethics: everywhere we find government, its organisation, its deeds, playing so prominent a part that we grow accustomed to suppose that the State and the political men are everything; that there is nothing behind the big statesmen. The same teachings are daily repeated in the Press. Whole columns are filled up with minutest records of parliamentary debates, of movements of political persons. And, while reading these columns, we too often forget that besides those few men whose importance has been so swollen up as to overshadow humanity, there is an immense body of men—mankind, in fact—growing and dying, living in happiness or sorrow, labouring and consuming, thinking and creating. And yet, if we revert from the printed matter to our real life, and cast a broad glance on society as it is, we are struck with the infinitesimal part played by government in our life. Millions of human beings live and die without having had anything to do with government. Every day millions of transactions are made without the slightest interference of government; and those who enter into agreements have not the slightest intention of breaking bargains. Nay, those agreements which are not protected by government (those of the exchange, or card debts) am perhaps better kept than any others. The simple habit of keeping one's word, the desire of not losing confidence, are quite sufficient in an overwhelming majority of cases to enforce the keeping of agreements. Of course it may be said that there is still the government which might enforce them if necessary. But without speaking of the numberless cases which could not even be brought before a court, everyone who has the slightest acquaintance with trade will undoubtedly confirm the assertion that, if there were not so strong a feeling of honour in keeping agreements, trade itself would become utterly impossible.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pyotr Kropotkin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will-meet-with-at-least-as-many/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will_2568911.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will_2568911.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d0c/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_of-course-the-no-government-ethics-will_2568911.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Of course the no-government ethics will meet with at least as many objections as the no-capital economics…” — Pyotr Kropotkin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The anarchists cannot consider, like the collectivists, that a remuneration which would be proportionate to the hours of labour spent by each person in the production of riches may be an ideal, or even an approach to an ideal, society. Without entering here into a discussion as to how far the exchange value of each merchandise is really measured now by the amount of labour necessary for its production—a separate study must be devoted to the subject—we must say that the collectivist ideal seems to us merely unrealizable in a society which has been brought to consider the necessaries for production as a common property. Such a society would be compelled to abandon the wage-system altogether. It appears impossible that the mitigated individualism of the collectivist school could co-exist with the partial communism implied by holding land and machinery in common—unless imposed by a powerful government, much more powerful than all those of our own times. The present wage-system has grown up from the appropriation of the necessaries for production by the few; it was a necessary condition for the growth of the present capitalist production; and it cannot outlive it, even if an attempt be made to pay to the worker the full value of his produce, and hours-of-labour-checks be substituted for money. Common possession of the necessaries for production implies the common enjoyment of the fruits of the common production; and we consider that an equitable organization of society can only arise when every wage-system is abandoned, and when everybody, contributing for the common well-being to the full extent of his capacities, shall enjoy also from the common stock of society to the fullest possible extent of his needs.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pyotr Kropotkin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pyotr-kropotkin/the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the-collectivists-that-a/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/169/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the_3062935.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/169/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the_3062935.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/169/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_anarchism_the-anarchists-cannot-consider-like-the_3062935.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The anarchists cannot consider, like the collectivists, that a remuneration which would be proportionate to…” — Pyotr Kropotkin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/pyotr-kropotkin/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/pyotr-kropotkin/", "name": "Anarchism Quotes by Pyotr Kropotkin", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/anarchism/pyotr-kropotkin/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a4d/pyotr-kropotkin-15647_active-life_having-been-brought-up-in-a-serf-owner-s_1534772.jpg" }, "description": "4 Anarchism quotes by Pyotr Kropotkin. 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