Foundation Quotes by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

When deeds speak, words are nothing.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

In any given society the authority of man over man runs in inverse proportion to the intellectual development of that society.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is exploitation of the strong by…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The faults of which we ask you [God] the remittance, it is you who make us commit them; the traps of which we implore…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Does it seem to you impossible to imagine anything more inextricable than the social contract, when you think of the frightful number of relations…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The proprietor, producing neither by his own labor nor by his implement, and receiving products in exchange for nothing, is either a parasite or…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The social revolution is seriously compromised if it comes through a political revolution.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Property is impossible.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Justice is a faculty that may be developed. This development is what constitutes the education of the human race.

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued,…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Communism--the first expression of the social nature--is the first term of social development--the thesis; property, the reverse of communism, is the second term--the antithesis.…

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon