Federica Montseny quotes

Federica Montseny was a Spanish anarchist, writer, and one of the first female ministers in Western Europe. A prominent activist, she played a key role in Spain’s social and political movements during the early 20th century. She strongly advocated for women's rights and social justice throughout her life. Here are 19 of her quotes:

Men are as we have always known them, neither better nor worse from the hearts of rogues there springs a latent honesty, from the depths of honest men there emerges a brutish appetite - a thirst for extermination, a desire for blood. (Federica Montseny)
The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed. View quote
Federica Montseny
We need no messiah and no sterile conception of a god menacing us with hell and purgatory. View quote
Federica Montseny
The struggle is so great that the triumph over fascism alone is worth the sacrifice of our lives. View quote
Federica Montseny
But we must create in each person a sense of responsibility in order that each one of us can have the right to enjoy all his rights. View quote
Federica Montseny
In order to fully realise our aspirations, we must create in the masses of the people the sense of sacrifice and responsibility that has been the characteristic of the anarchist movement throughout its historic development in Spain. View quote
Federica Montseny
In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship. View quote
Federica Montseny
The people themselves, and only the people, determine the rhythm of our fight. View quote
Federica Montseny
Our constancy, same might call it our madness, was necessary to wear down the oppressive forces of the old democracy which, in Spain, was a hundred years behind the times. View quote
Federica Montseny
If all our comrades of Europe, America and other countries, who do not understand what we are doing to Spanish Anarchism, would come to Spain, we could then see how they would react. View quote
Federica Montseny
We tried many times before to speed on the social revolution in Spain; attempted to stir up the feelings of the people and to raise the banner of Libertarian Communism. (Federica Montseny)
Never will the Anarchists in Spain be made to suffer as they have been and are in Russia. View quote
Federica Montseny
I wish to say that we Anarchists have never changed our position. We are Anarchists as of old and still pursue the same ideals. View quote
Federica Montseny
Prostitution presents a moral, economic and social problem that cannot be resolved juridically. View quote
Federica Montseny
Authority is something from which we are constantly subtracting, of which there remains always a residue, and which we attempt to make smaller and smaller. View quote
Federica Montseny
And we will accept the creation of the Iberian Federation of a socialist republic which will give each region the right to construct its life in accordance with its economic possibilities and political preponderance. View quote
Federica Montseny
There are Anarchists in other parts of the world who are unable to, comprehend the position of the Spanish Anarchists. I do not pretend to censor these Anarchists. View quote
Federica Montseny
There is, therefore, no solution possible other than an economy directed by the workers through their organisations of control-through the workers' syndicates. View quote
Federica Montseny
We have confirmed something we only knew in theory, namely that revolution, in which uncontrolled and uncontrollable forces operate imperiously, is blind and destructive, grandiose and cruel. View quote
Federica Montseny

Federica Montseny

Federica Montseny - Image
Photo: Manel Armengol, CC BY-SA 2.0
Occupation: Spanish Activist
Born: February 12, 1905
Died: January 14, 1994
Quotes count: 19