Fragment of a letter (c. 1835-1840)

To be free and to liberate others, that is the secret of life. Women have this vocation just as much as men. I would even add, contrary to the generally accepted idea that only a subordinate position and activity, that they have this calling even more than men, for their life and their acts are neither abstract, nor simplistic; on the contrary, they constitute a living fullness that needs the free air to blossom in all its beauty, and because they understand and feel much more deeply than men the misfortune and the humiliation of their brothers. I have long […]

Letter to “La Réforme” (January 1845) Monsieur! The Gazette des Tribunaux has announced, together with other Paris newspapers, the ukase issued against Mr. Golowine and myself. I regard the proceedings, certainly not so delicate, of the Russian government against us as something so natural and above all so insignificant, in comparison with the enormous iniquities which it commits each day in our unfortunate homeland, that I certainly would not allow myself, Monsieur, to speak to you of myself, if I did not find myself forced to it by a letter that Mr. Golowine thought he should address to the Gazette […]

The Policy of the International I L’Égalité, August 7, 1869; “We have believed until now, said La Montagne, that political and religious opinions were independent of the profession of member of the International; and, as for us, that is the terrain on which we place ourselves.” We could believe, at first glance, that Mr. Coullery was right. For, in fact, in accepting a new member the International does not ask him whether he is religious or an atheist, whether or not he belongs to any political party. It simply asks him: Are you a worker, or if you are not, […]