Denied Quotes

• Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.

  Frederick Douglass

  Peace, Patriotic, Ignorance

  Speech on the twenty-fourth anniversary of emancipation in the District of Columbia,Washington, D.C., Apr. 1886

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• Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

  Otto von Bismarck

  Military, Believe, Political

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• It has always been my belief that children inherit the suppressed tendencies of their parents. A clergyman's son frequently shows abnormal tastes for the pleasures that his father denied himself.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Children, Father, Son

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1905). “The Story of a Literary Career”

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• Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.

  George R. R. Martin

  Truth, Honesty, Men

  George R. R. Martin (2012). “George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons”, p.645, Bantam

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• We are told in the Pentateuch, that god, the father of us all, gave thousands of maidens, after having killed their fathers, their mothers, and their brothers, to satisfy the brutal lusts of savage men. If there be a god, I pray him to write in his book, opposite my name, that I denied this lie for him.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Mother, Brother, Father

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.435, Library of Alexandria

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• There is no sorrow like a love denied. Nor any joy like love that has its will.

  Richard Hovey

  Lost Love, Like Love, Joy

  Richard Hovey (1907). “Launcelot and Guenevere: The marriage of Guenevere”

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• These people get to the top because they have to, because inside them burns a dream too big, too ever present, too demanding to be denied.

  Earl Nightingale

  Dream, Sea, People

  Earl Nightingale (1969). “This is Earl Nightingale”, Doubleday Books

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• It should not be denied... that being footloose has always exhilarated us. It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom, and the road has always led West.

  Wallace Stegner

  Law, Mind, West

  Wallace Earle Stegner (1987). “The American West as Living Space”, p.22, University of Michigan Press

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• Until the sky is the limit [for women], as it is for men, men as well as women will suffer, because all society is affected when half of it is denied equal opportunity for full development.

  Mary Barnett Gilson

  Opportunity, Men, Sky

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• In a world in which there is so much to interest, so much to enjoy, and so much also to correct and improve, everyone who has this moderate amount of moral and intellectual requisites is capable of an existence which may be called enviable; and unless such a person, through bad laws, or subjection to the will of others, is denied the liberty to use the sources of happiness within his reach, he will not fail to find the enviable existence

  John Stuart Mill

  Law, Intellectual, Liberty

  John Stuart Mill (2017). “Utilitarianism”, p.13, Coventry House Publishing

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• It is the same for all men. None of us can escape this shadow of the father, even if that shadow fills us with fear, even if it has no name or face. To be worthy of that man, to prove something to that man, to exorcise the memory of that man from every corner of our life--however it affects us, the shadow of that man cannot be denied.

  Kent Nerburn

  Memories, Father, Men

  Kent Nerburn (2014). “Letters to My Son: A Father's Wisdom on Manhood, Life, and Love”, p.28, New World Library

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• How different South Africa’s cricketing achievements, and indeed the future of the country itself, might have been if racism had not denied Frank Roro the opportunity of batting with Bruce Mitchell in the Lord’s sunshine.

  Richard Lloyd

  Country, Sunshine, Opportunity

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• It is cruel for you to leave your daughter, so full of hope and resolve, to suffer the humiliations of disfranchisement she already feels so keenly, and which she will find more and more galling as she grows into the stronger and grander woman she is sure to be. If it were your son who for any cause was denied his right to have his opinion counted, you would compass sea and land to lift the ban from him.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Daughter, Son, Sea

  Lynn Sherr, Susan B. Anthony (1995). “Failure Is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words”, Crown

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• Someone Hot is sometimes can't be the person they appear to be- except for their hotness... that cannot be denied.

  Meg Cabot

  Hot, Sometimes, Persons

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• The dog’s agenda is simple, fathomable, overt: I want. “I want to go out, come in, eat something, lie here, play with that, kiss you. There are no ulterior motives with a dog, no mind games, no second-guessing, no complicated negotiations or bargains, and no guilt trips or grudges if a request is denied.

  Caroline Knapp

  Dog, Lying, Kissing

  Caroline Knapp (2010). “Pack of Two: The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs”, p.215, Dial Press

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• When I recollect the treasure of friendship that has been bestowed upon me I withdraw all charges against life. If much has been denied me, much, very much has been given. So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart I shall say that life is good.

  Helen Keller

  Memories, Heart, Life Is Good

  Helen Keller (2000). “To Love this Life: Quotations”, p.33, American Foundation for the Blind

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• This account of him [Thomas More] developed as I wrote: what first attracted me was a person who could not be accused of any incapacity for life, who indeed seized life in great variety and almost greedy quantities, who nevertheless found something in himself without which life was valueless and when that was denied him was able to grasp his death.

  Robert Bolt

  Able, Firsts, Greedy

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• Oh, the holiness of always being the injured party. The historically oppressed can find not only sanctity but safety in the stateof victimization. When access to a better life has been denied often enough, and successfully enough, one can use the rejection as an excuse to cease all efforts. After all, one reckons, "they" don't want me, "they" accept their own mediocrity and refuse my best, "they" don't deserve me.

  Maya Angelou

  Party, Safety, Effort

  1976 Singin'and Swingin'and Getting Merry Like Christmas, ch.9.

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• When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Freedom

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.174, Pan Macmillan

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• Madness is locked beneath. It goes into tissues, is swallowed by the cells. The cells go mad. Cancer is their flag. Cancer is thegrowth of madness denied.

  Norman Mailer

  Cancer, Cells, Mad

  Norman Mailer (2013). “An American Dream: A Novel”, p.254, Random House

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• Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.

  Richard Wright

  Expression, Individuality, Violence

  "Native Son". Book by Richard Wright, 1940.

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• A woman knows very well that, though a wit sends her his poems, praises her judgment, solicits her criticism, and drinks her tea, this by no means signifies that he respects her opinions, admires her understanding, or will refuse, though the rapier is denied him, to run through the body with his pen.

  Virginia Woolf

  Running, Women, Mean

  Virginia Woolf (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)”, p.1241, Delphi Classics

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• Heaven's brightest and best-loved angel, who was cast out for inspiring a rebellion against God. Having lost Heaven, Lucifer and his rebel angels vowed to continue fighting here on earth." "I don't understand why he had to fight. He was already in heaven." "True. But he wasn't content to serve. He wanted more." "He had all he could ask for, didn't he?" Ann asks. "Exactly." Miss Moore states. "He had to ask. He was dependent upon someone else's whim. It's a terrible thing to have no power of one's own. To be denied.

  Libba Bray

  Angel, Fighting, Missing

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• Something went klunk. Like a nickel dropping in a soda machine. One of those small insights that explains everything. This was puberty for these boys. Adolescence. The first date, the first kiss, the first chance to hold hands with someone special. Delayed, postponed, a decade's worth of longing--while everybody around you celebrates life, you pretend, suppress, inhibit, deprive yourself of you own joy--but finally ultimately, eventually, you find a place where you can have a taste of everything denied.

  David Gerrold

  Kissing, Boys, Hands

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• In Harlem, black was white. You had rights that could not be denied you; you had privileges, protected by law. And you had money. Everybody in Harlem had money. It was a land of plenty.

  Rudolph Fisher

  Rights, Law, Land

  Rudolph Fisher, John McCluskey (2008). “The City of Refuge: The Collected Stories of Rudolph Fisher”, p.36, University of Missouri Press

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