Peter Kropotkin

Born 9 December 1842 · Died 8 February 1921

Russian anarchist, zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geographer, writer

Quotes

“When we have but the will to do it, that very moment will Justice be done: that very instant the tyrants of the Earth shall bite the dust.”
An Appeal to the Young
“When we ask for the abolition of the State and its organs we are always told that we dream of a society composed of men better than they are in reality. But no; a thousand times, no. All we ask is that men should not be made worse than they are, by such institutions!”
Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal
“Have not prisons — which kill all will and force of character in man, which enclose within their walls more vices than are met with on any other spot of the globe — always been universities of crime? Is not the court of a tribunal a school of ferocity?”
Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Ideal
“The State is only one of the forms assumed by society in the course of history. Why then make no distinction between what is permanent and what is accidental?”
The State — Its Historic Role
“The means of production being the collective work of humanity, the product should be the collective property of the race. Individual appropriation is neither just nor serviceable. All belongs to all.”
The Conquest of Bread, Chapter 1

Quotes from Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0), chosen with AI.

Books by Peter Kropotkin in order

Books by Peter Kropotkin in the order they were published, from Paroles d'un révolté (1885) to Anarchism, Anarchist Communism, and the State (2019).

Authors readers of Peter Kropotkin often like, from our AI-written notes

Élisée ReclusA French anarchist geographer whose work on the earth and on society parallels Kropotkin's interests in geography and politics.
Errico MalatestaAn Italian anarchist who worked with Kropotkin and shared many views on communist anarchism, though they differed on some questions of tactics and the war.
Emma GoldmanAn anarchist writer and activist who was influenced by Kropotkin's ideas and later took up similar questions about the state and revolution.
Charles DarwinKropotkin's work responds directly to Darwin's ideas on evolution, so readers of Darwin's Origin of Species often read Kropotkin next.
William MorrisA socialist writer who imagined a cooperative, stateless society in News from Nowhere, which readers of Kropotkin often find close in spirit.