Piotr Kropotkin - A la juventud (ES)

It is to the youth that I wish to address myself.

Let the older generation—I mean, of course, the older generation in heart and mind—set aside these words and not tire their eyes reading what will mean nothing to them.

I imagine you are eighteen or twenty years old, having finished your apprenticeship or studies, now entering life. I assume your mind is free from the superstitions that the teachers have tried to impose on you; I assume you do not fear the devil, that you are not going to listen to priests or politicians preaching.

And also that you are not a conceited person, one of those sad products of a decadent society who flaunt their expensive clothes and their cocky poses in the streets, who even at their young age only desire vain pleasure at any price… I assume, on the contrary, that you have a good heart; and for this reason, I am addressing you.”

Finally, we have a paperback edition of Kropotkin’s most widely read text.