Errico Malatesta, in Anarchy (1891)
“

Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, "without government": the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a movement (which has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare), the word “anarchy” was used universally in the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries interested in distorting the truth.

— Errico Malatesta on Anarchism

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Anarchy is a word that comes from the Greek, and signifies, strictly speaking, "without government": the state of a people without any constituted authority. Before such an organization had begun to be considered possible and desirable by a whole class of thinkers, so as to be taken as the aim of a movement (which has now become one of the most important factors in modern social warfare), the word “anarchy” was used universally in the sense of disorder and confusion, and it is still adopted in that sense by the ignorant and by adversaries interested in distorting the truth." in the context of "Errico Malatesta, in Anarchy (1891)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Anarchism" (M) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Errico Malatesta

About Errico Malatesta

Errico Malatesta (December 14, 1853 – July 22, 1932) was an Italian anarcho-communist.