Quotes from Gustav Landauer

If I want to transform patriotism then I do not proceed in the slightest against the fine fact of the nation but against the mixing up of the nation and the state.

Anarchism's lone objective is to reach a point at which the belligerence of some humans against humanity, in whatever form, comes to a halt.

The state is a social relationship; a certain way of people relating to one another. It can be destroyed by creating new social relationships; ie, by people relating to one another differently.

We are the state, and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real community and society of men.

The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behaviour; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another… We are the State and we shall continue to be the State until we have created the institutions that form a real community.

You don't know what order with freedom means! You only know what revolt against oppression is! You don't know that the rod, discipline, violence, the state and government can only be sustained because of you and because of your lack of socially creative powers that develop order within liberty!

The State is a condition, a certain relationship between human beings, a mode of behavior; we destroy it by contracting other relationships, by behaving differently toward one another....We are the state, and we shall continue to be the state until we have created the institutions that form a real community and society of men.

Aber die ungeheure Gefahr ist, daß Schlendrian und Nachahmung sich auch der Revolutionäre bemächtigen und sie zu Philistern des Radikalismus, des tönenden worts und der Gewaltgebärde machen; daß sie nicht wissen und nicht wissen wollen: die Umwandlung der Gesellschaft kann nur in Liebe, in Arbeit, in Stille kommen.

Nichts, nichts in der Welt hat so unwiderstehliche Gewalt der Eroberung wie das Gute.

Revolution- a principle stepping over vast distances of time.

W]ir dürfen ... ruhig sagen, daß allen großen Gestaltungen des Mitlebens der Menschen ein Wahn vorgeleuchtet hat, daß die Menschen immer nur durch Wahn aneinander gebunden waren, daß immer nur der Wahn die Individuen zu höheren Organisationsformen und Gesamtheiten aufgebaut hat.

The real transformation of society will come only in love, in work, and in stillness.