For the people, the church is a kind of celestial tavern, just as the tavern is a sort of celestial church on earth. In church and tavern alike they … - Mikhail Bakunin

"Does it follow that I reject all authority? Perish the thought. In the matter of boots, I defer to the authority of the bootmaker; concerning houses, canals, or railroads, I consult the architect or the engineer For such special knowledge I apply to such a "savant." But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor the "savant" to impose his authority on me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and censure. I do not content myself with consulting a single authority in any special branch; I consult several; I compare their opinions and choose that which seems to me soundest. But I recognize no infallible authority, even m special questions; consequently, whatever respect I may have for the honesty and the sincerity of an individual, I have no absolute faith in any person. Such a faith would be fatal to my reason, to my liberty, and even to the success of my undertakings; it would immediately transform me into a stupid slave, the tool of other people's will and interests."

"Há uma categoria de pessoas que, se não creem, devem pelo menos fazer de conta que sim. São todos os atormentadores, os opressores, os exploradores da humanidade: padres, monarcas, homens de Estado, homens de guerra, financistas públicos e privados, funcionários de todos os tipos, soldados, policiais, carcereiros e carrascos, capitalistas, aproveitadores, empresários e proprietários, advogados, economistas, políticos de todas as cores, até o último vendedor de especiarias, todos repetirão em uníssono essas palavras de Voltaire: "Se Deus não existisse seria preciso inventá-lo"."

Between a monarchy and the most democratic republic there is only one essential difference: in the former, the world of officialdom oppresses and robs the people for the greater profit of the privileged and propertied classes, as well as to line its own pockets, in the name of the monarch; in the latter, it oppresses and robs the people in exactly the same way, for the benefit of the same classes and the same pockets, but in the name of the people’s will.