“And so I am not concerned to justify the perpetrators of violence but to enquire into the function of the violence of the working classes in contemporary socialism.”

Source: Reflections on Violence (1908), p. 42

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "And so I am not concerned to justify the perpetrators of violence but to enquire into the function of the violence of t…" by Georges Sorel?
Georges Sorel photo
Georges Sorel 19
French philosopher and sociologist 1847–1922

Related quotes

Benito Mussolini photo

“[Marx was] the magnificent philosopher of working class violence.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

As quoted by Mussolini in From George Sorel: Essays in Socialism and Philosophy by John L. Stanley (1987) p. 4.
Undated

Salman Rushdie photo

“The responsibility for violence lies with those who perpetrate it.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

"In Good Faith" (1990), p. 19

Elbert Hubbard photo

“Destruction, violence, ravages, murder, are perpetrated by statute law.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

The Better Part (1901)
Context: I AM an Anarchist.
All good men are Anarchists.
All cultured, kindly men; all gentlemen; all just men are Anarchists.
Jesus was an Anarchist.
A Monarchist is one who believes a monarch should govern. A Plutocrat believes in the rule of the rich. A Democrat holds that the majority should dictate. An Aristocrat thinks only the wise should decide; while an Anarchist does not believe in government at all. Richard Croker is a Monarchist; Mark Hanna a Plutocrat; Cleveland a Democrat; Cabot Lodge an Aristocrat; William Penn, Henry D. Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Walt Whitman were Anarchists. An Anarchist is one who minds his own business. An Anarchist does not believe in sending warships across wide oceans to kill brown men, and lay waste rice fields, and burn the homes of people who are fighting for liberty. An Anarchist does not drive women with babes at their breasts and other women with babes unborn, children and old men into the jungle to be devoured by beasts or fever or fear, or die of hunger, homeless, unhouseled and undone.
Destruction, violence, ravages, murder, are perpetrated by statute law..

Wendell Berry photo
Robert Mugabe photo

“When they criticise the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence we take the position that they can go hang.”

Robert Mugabe (1924–2019) former President of Zimbabwe

Remarks following a meeting with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete (15 March 2007), commenting on a violent clash between members of his party and the opposition MDC
2000s, 2005 - 2009

Wendell Berry photo

“The distinction between the intention to perpetrate violence against innocents, as in "terrorism," and the willingness to do so, as in "war," is not a source of comfort.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Citizenship Papers (2003), A Citizen's Response
Context: To imply by the word "terrorism" that this sort of terror is the work exclusively of "terrorists" is misleading. The "legitimate" warfare of technologically advanced nations likewise is premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against innocents. The distinction between the intention to perpetrate violence against innocents, as in "terrorism," and the willingness to do so, as in "war," is not a source of comfort.

Vladimir Lenin photo
Steven Pinker photo

“On the contrary, violence is often caused by a surfeit of morality and justice, at least as they are conceived in the minds of the perpetrators.”

Steven Pinker (1954) psychologist, linguist, author

p 139
The Better Angels of our Nature (2011)

Aldo Capitini photo

“Perhaps justified violence is better than peace at any price.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The Uncertain Midnight (1958)

Related topics