The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations: Cutting Comments on Burning Issues

Like another reviewer, I've used the quotes from this "Handbook" in countless emails, postings on message boards and so forth. The remarks are culled from the works of well-known figures like Oscar Wilde, and lesser-known thinkers like Errico Malatesta. This book illustrates, among other things, why the establishment has made such an effort to mis-define "anarchism," which isn't about chaos and violence, but is actually a sophisticated ideology of human freedom and cooperation. I'll simply share this quotation from Rudolf Rocker, from his book, "Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism": Power operates only destructively, bent always on forcing every manifestation of social life into the straitjacket of its rules. Its intellectual expression is dead dogma, its physical form brute force. And this unintelligence of its objectives sets its stamp on its representatives also, and renders them often stupid and brutal, even when they were originally endowed with the best talents. One who is constantly striving to force everything into a mechanical order at last becomes a machine himself and loses all human feelings. It was from this understanding that modern anarchism was born and draws its moral force. Only freedom can inspire men to great things and bring about intellectual and social transformations. The art of ruling men has never been the art of educating and inspiring them to a new shaping of their lives. Dreary compulsion has at its command only lifeless drill, which smothers any vital initiative at its birth and brings forth only subjects, not free men. Freedom is the very essence of life, the impelling force in all intellectual and social development, the creator of every new outlook for the future of mankind. The liberation of man from economic exploitation and from intellectual, social, and political oppression, which finds its highest expression in the philosophy of anarchism, is the prerequisite of the evolution of a higher social culture and a new humanity." For more on Rocker, I'd recommend this book that Noam Chomsky does the preface for. Anarcho-Syndicalism: Theory and Practice (Working Classics)

I found this was a fantastic reference book for finding quotations to use in college papers. There are lots and lots of great quotes that will back up your point or exemplify someone else's. A lot of them are by very famous people too. After I used this book a couple times for papers I found it too alluring to put it down, and I read the whole thing. This is a very well compiled collection of quotations that are organized by ideas to make quotes easy to find for papers. If you're a fan of critical thinking you should check this book out at your library, and then you'll probably want to buy it. Aaron

I purchased Bufe's eclectic collection of banter and agitprop some three(+) years ago, and haven't tired of it one bit. Initially, I thought it might be a good resource for writing, which it is, but was surprised to find myself constantly picking it up between projects, thumbing through it while on the phone, etc.My only misgivings, as mild as they are, concern Bufe's, at times, transparent partisanship. Favoring Anarchism, he seems to present its patron saints (Bakunin, Goldman, et al.) in a more generous light than Marxists and other Socialists--and his representative sample of Christians and Christian thought flirts (tirelessly) with the straw-person fallacy. (Don't believe the hype--Jesus was a Socialist)All in all, 'The Handbook' is a progressive's gold mine; I highly recommend it to any thoughtful person.

I love this book. I originaly bought it just for shits and giggles- but I've ended up using it for spicing up many articles and countless e-mails. An essential piece of reference material for the anarchist, atheist, dissident and all around provocateur.

This book is full of radical ideas. The author really did bust his butt to come up w/ a book that will compliment any economics, political "science", sociology, history, and religion class. It's a great resource for writing papers, casual reading, and of course, holding down that antigravitational device known as a coffee table. It's witty and insightful cover to cover (so rare for any publication these days).