Degradation Quotes - Page 3

• That which commands admiration in the white woman only hastens the degradation of the female slave.

  Patricia Hill Collins

  White, Slave Girl, Female

  Patricia Hill Collins (2002). “Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment”, p.92, Routledge

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• Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Struggle, Ambition, Hunting

  Mahatma Gandhi (1958). “Collected Works”

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• Ireland, as distinct from her people, is nothing to me; and the man who is bubbling over with love and enthusiasm for "Ireland," and can yet pass unmoved through our streets and witness all the wrong and the suffering, shame and degradation wrought upon the people of Ireland-yea, wrought by Irishmen upon Irish men and women, without burning to end it, is, in my opinion, a fraud and a liar in his heart, no matter how he loves that combination of chemical elements he is pleased to call Ireland.

  James Connolly

  Liars, Heart, Men

  James Connolly (1987). “Labour in Irish history ; The re-conquest of Ireland ; Socialism and nationalism”

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• Through it [Science] we believe that man will be saved from misery and degradation, not merely acquiring new material powers, but learning to use and to guide his life with understanding. Through Science he will be freed from the fetters of superstition; through faith in Science he will acquire a new and enduring delight in the exercise of his capacities; he will gain a zest and interest in life such as the present phase of culture fails to supply.

  Ray Lankester

  Faith, Believe, Science

  "The Advancement of Science: Occasional Essays & Addresses". Book by Ray Lankester, p. 108-9, "Biology and the State", 1890.

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• A little weeping, a little wheedling, a little self-degradation, a little careful use of our advantages, and then some man will say .Come, be my wife! With good looks and youth marriage is easy to attain. There are men enough; but a woman who has sold herself, even for a ring and a new name, need hold her skirt aside for no creature in the street. They both earn their bread in one way. Marriage for love is the most beautiful external symbol of the union of souls; marriage without it is the least clean traffic that defiles the world.

  Olive Schreiner

  Marriage, Beautiful, Love Is

  The Story of an African Farm pt. 2, ch. 4 (1883)

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• That only a few, under any circumstances, protest against the injustice of long-established laws and customs, does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real only proves their apathy and deeper degradation.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Real, Law, Long

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898). “Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897”, p.318, UPNE

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• Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness.

  Sigmund Freud

  Vices, Illness, Sexuality

  Letter to an American mother, 9 Apr. 1935

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• Is a civilization naturally backward because it is different? Outside of cannibalism, which can be matched in this country, at least, by lynching, there is no vice and no degradation in native African customs which can begin to touch the horrors thrust upon them by white masters. Drunkenness, terrible diseases, immorality, all these things have been gifts of European civilization.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Country, Lynching, Civilization

  "Reconstruction and Africa" (1919)

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• There are those... who enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot. Unless these unfortunates can be touched with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only sink back into renewed apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us, who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.

  Aga Khan IV

  Determination, Motivation, Mean

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• Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

  Patrick Henry

  Real, Gun, Differences

  Speech on the Federal Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention, on June 09, 1788. "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution". Book edited by Jonathan Elliot, volume 3, p. 168-169, 1836.

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• The seriousness of ecological degradation lays bare the depth of man's moral crisis... Simplicity, moderation, and discipline as well as the spirit of sacrifice must become a part of everyday life.

  Pope John Paul II

  Sacrifice, Men, Discipline

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• What about our refusal to look squarely at the degradation of the planet we inhabit? In the last election cycle many candidates refused even to acknowledge the hard science, irrefutable science, of climate change. The president, while readily accepting the facts, has done far too little to alter them. How long are we, are you, prepared to wait?

  David Remnick

  Long, Waiting, President

  David Remnick's Commencement Address at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, news.syr.edu. May 11, 2014.

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• The fact is that every war suffers a kind of progressive degradation with every month that it continues, because such things as individual liberty and a truthful press are simply not compatible with military efficiency.

  George Orwell

  Military, War, Suffering

  George Orwell (2016). “Homage to Catalonia / Down and Out in Paris and London”, p.190, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• In a nuclear age, and in an age of serious environmental degradation, apocalyptic belief creates a serious second order danger. The precarious logic of self-interest that saw us through the Cold War would collapse if the leaders of one nuclear state came to welcome, or ceased to fear mass death.

  Ian Mcewan

  War, Self, Order

  "The day of judgment, part two" by Ian McEwan, www.theguardian.com. May 31, 2008.

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• The gross perversion and destruction of motherhood by the abortionist filled me with indignation, and awakened active antagonism. That the honorable term 'female physician' should be exclusively applied to those women who carried on this shocking trade seemed to me a horror. It was an utter degradation of what might and should become a noble position for women.

  Elizabeth Blackwell

  Motherhood, Abortion, Female

  Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (2016). “Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches”, p.25, Library of Alexandria

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• The people who, during the election, were so wise, so moral, so perfect, now have no tendencies whatever; or if they have any, they are tendencies that lead downward to degradation. . . . If people are as incapable, as immoral, and as ignorant as the politicians indicate, then why is the right of these same people to vote defended with such passionate insistence?

  Frederic Bastiat

  Wise, Perfect, People

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• So many sins against the poor cry out to high heaven! One of the most deadly sins is to deprive the laborer of his hire. There is another: to instill in him paltry desires so compulsive that he is willing to sell his liberty and his honor to satisfy them. We are all guilty of concupiscence, but newspapers, radios, television, and battalions of advertising men (woe to that generation!) deliberately stimulate our desires, the satisfaction of which so often means the degradation of the family.

  Dorothy Day

  Mean, Men, Heaven

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• Pornography as propaganda, according to feminist analysis, represents women as objects who love to be abused, and teaches men practices of degradation and abuse to carry out upon women.

  Sheila Jeffreys

  Men, Practice, Feminist

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• Before Israel dies, it must be humiliated and degraded. Allah willing, before they die, they will experience humiliation and degradation every day.

  Khaled Mashal

  Israel, Humiliation, Humiliated

  Address at the Al-Murabit Mosque in Damascus, Al-Jazeera TV, February 3, 2006.

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• Understanding what is going on in the world today inspires me in a negative sense because there's so much about it that I don't like - political stupidity, environmental degradation, etc. And that makes me want to change it, to make a difference in the world.

  Theodora Goss

  Differences, Stupidity, Political

  Source: www.sfsignal.com

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• It is the system, rather than individuals, that is the source of pollution and degradation. My prison-house environment is but another manifestation of the Midas-hand, whose cursed touch turns everything to the brutal service of Mammon.

  Alexander Berkman

  Hands, House, Prison

  Alexander Berkman (1912). “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”

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• Our political system cannot stop the degradation of our culture.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Political, Culture, Political Systems

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• The best armor is to keep out of range.

  Abraham J. Twerski

  War, Armor, Range

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• Do you know how much energy, how many powers, how many forces, are still lurking behind that frame of yours? What scientist has known all that is in man? Millions of years have passed since man came here, and yet but one infinitesimal part of his powers has been manifested. Therefore, you must not say that you are weak. How do you know what possibilities lie behind that degradation on the surface? You know but little of that which is within you. For behind you is the ocean of infinite power and blessedness.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Lying, Ocean, Men

  Swami Vivekananda “My Idea of Education”, Advaita Ashrama (A publication branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)

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• Now, I actually have to a degree, a responsibility to ensure that it doesn't happen again.' I felt pride. When you're up there [in the noose] it does give you pause but I'm no stranger to degradation and dehumanization. I felt a lot of pride to be a part of showing something like this because a lot of people don't know and haven't been exposed to these types of historical experiences until they see it depicted on our show [Underground].

  Aldis Hodge

  Responsibility, Pride, Giving

  Source: lasentinel.net

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