Was it Emma Goldman who said,"If I can't dance at your revolution, I don't want to go'?

Here’s a great discussion of whether or not she said it, by no less than Alix Kate Shulman on no less than a Berkeley website:

http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Features/dances_shulman.html

To answer part two of your question:

“Any club that would have me, I don’t want to be a member of.” – Groucho Marx

Not quite the same meaning, but a great comment none the less. Written by a Marxist not an anarchist. :-)

Gustav Flaubert said, ” I spent the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon removing it.”

Thoreau said, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”

@gailcalled I thought that was said by Mark Twain?

@janbb: Here are the links.

Thanks, all!

@gailcalled Interesting, I googled the key words and Mark Twain and got citations for him. Didn’t do a thorough check of the citations. I stand corrected.

@janbb: Wasn’t Twain a dandy in his ice cream suits and elegant coif?

@janbb: Every witticism is eventually attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, or Oscar Wilde, regardless of who originally said it.

@cwilbur Very true.

(I wonder how many people under 30 have heard of Emma Goldman.)

@cwilbur That is an eminently quotable statement.

@skfinkel Thie quote made me think of a song by one of my favorite artists, Libby Roderick.

DANCING IN FRONT OF THE GUNS
Words and music by Libby Roderick
c Libby Roderick Music 1991
BMI. All rights reserved
From Thinking Like a Mountain

We’re facing the guns again, we have faced them before
Humanity’s longing after so many deaths
For something more human than war
But part of me whispers “Take your body and run away.|
Leave the vision to somebody else,” then I hear myself say,

I’d rather be dancing at the edge of my grave.
I’d rather be holding you close as we march forward loving and brave.
I’d rather be singing in the face of my fear.
I’d rather be dancing in front of the guns as long as I’m here.

Life is so dangerous that there’s little to fear
Life is so possible, every breath a frontier
They’ve brought out the guns once again ‘cuz they haven’t a clue
That we could be dancing, the whole human race, each one must choose

And I’d rather be dancing at the edge of my grave…

To the drum of my heartbeat pounding up through my feet
With millions of lovers urging me on as we take to the streets
As we face the terror, if I leave here before my time
One thing’s for certain, I’ll go dancing and I’ll go alive!

And I’d rather be dancing at the edge of my grave…

@Marina Wow, just wow.

@gailcalled You’re right, Mark was a dandy but I don’t think he would let it stand in the way of a good witticism. cwilbur’s point is a good one.

The other sources of all quotes are The Bible, Shakespeare, and interestingly enough, Don Quixote.

Janbb; Speaking of “Give me your tired, your poor,” you talkin’ to me?

@gailcalled Wasn’t that written by the Emma who was married to a boring doctor in France?:-)

@Marina : thanks for the song lyrics. It has great resonance now thinking of Iran.