Oppressed Quotes

• To hold a people in oppression you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed.

  John Henrik Clarke

  People, Firsts, Oppression

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• A government which uses force to maintain its rule teaches the oppressed to use force to oppose it.

  Nelson Mandela

  Teaching, Government, Use

  Nelson Mandela (1988). “The Historic Speech of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela at the Rivonia Trial: As Delivered from the Dock on April 20, 1964”

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• The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.367, Chicago Review Press

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• The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother's keeper.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Brother, Men

  Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1968). “I Have a Dream: The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr”

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• The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

  Steven Biko

  Historical, Mind, Weapons

  "White Racism and Black Consciousness" (paper presented at workshop sponsored by Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies),Cape Town, South Africa, Jan. 1971

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• Serve humanity, regardless of religion. Show solidarity for those suffering and oppressed.

  Tariq Ramadan

  Humanity, Suffering, Solidarity

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• 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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• Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Interesting, Social Justice, Oppression

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• You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

  Booker T. Washington

  Letting Go, Stay Strong, Men

  "The Great Quotations" edited by George Seldes, (p. 641), 1971.

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• In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation, they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit , but as a limiting situation which they can transform.

  Paulo Freire

  Struggle, Reality, Order

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.35, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Those who oppressed us described us as the Dark Continent!

  Thabo Mbeki

  Dark, Swag, Continents

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• To say that poverty explains terror is to slander those caught in poverty who choose to lead worthy lives. [Terrorists] are not the oppressed, but they are the parasites of the oppressed.

  Sean Wilentz

  Poverty, Caught, Parasites

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• Right from the moment of our birth, we are under the care and kindness of our parents, and then later on in our life when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others. Since at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on other's kindness, how can it be in the middle that we would neglect kindness towards others?

  Dalai Lama

  Kindness, Helping Others, Parent

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• Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

  Nelson Mandela

  Inspiring, Beautiful, Hair

  Presidential Inaugural Address, 10 May 1994

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• He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

  Thomas Paine

  Pain, Freedom, Fear

  Thomas Paine (2016). “THOMAS PAINE Ultimate Collection: Political Works, Philosophical Writings, Speeches, Letters & Biography (Including Common Sense, The Rights of Man & The Age of Reason): The American Crisis, The Constitution of 1795, Declaration of Rights, Agrarian Justice, The Republican Proclamation, Anti-Monarchal Essay, Letters to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington…”, p.1336, e-artnow

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• Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor.

  Malcolm X

  Truth, Racism, Hajj

  "Malcolm X Speaks". Book by George Breitman, 1965.

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• No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.

  Clarence Darrow

  Helping, Fierce, Penalties

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.72, Lulu.com

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• All oppression creates a state of war.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  War, Historical, Oppression

  Simone de Beauvoir (1953). “The second sex”, Vintage

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• Libertarian action must recognize this dependence as a weak point and must attempt through reflection and action to transform it into independence. However, not even the best-intentioned leadership can bestow independence as a gift. The liberation of the oppressed is a liberation of women and men, not things. Accordingly, while no one liberates himself by his own efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others. Liberation, a human phenomenon, cannot be achieved by semihumans. Any attempt to treat people as semihumans only dehumanizes them.

  Paulo Freire

  Men, Reflection, People

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.47, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Years, Class, Politics

  "The State and Revolution". Chapter 5, www.marxists.org. 1917.

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• It could never be a correct justification that, because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, that the blacks must oppress them today because they have power.

  Robert Mugabe

  Yesterday, Zimbabwe, Today

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• It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. And never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant.

  Desmond Tutu

  Ignorance, Mean, Rights

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• Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in 'changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them.

  Paulo Freire

  Lying, Consciousness, Interest

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.53, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must be saved from a burning building.

  Paulo Freire

  Burning, Building, Treats

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.46, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.

  Saul Bellow

  Oppression, Accuracy, Suppression

  The Adventures of Augie March ch. 1 (1953)

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