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

  75 Copy quote

• 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

  439 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Tariq Ramadan

  Humanity, Suffering, Solidarity

  5 Copy quote

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

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Interesting, Social Justice, Oppression

  39 Copy quote

• 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

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  12 Copy quote

• 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”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

  Simone Weil

  Peace, Giving, Doe

  12 Copy quote

• 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

  220 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

  Malcolm X

  Hate, Lying, Media

  611 Copy quote

• You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.

  Malcolm X

  Peace, Freedom, Inspiration

  Speech in New York City, January 7, 1965.

  310 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin.

  Malcolm X

  Believe, Thinking, Color

  249 Copy quote

• 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

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

  George Orwell

  Time, Freedom, Future

  74 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  44 Copy quote

  Show source

• Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Power, Tyrants

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• All oppression creates a state of war.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  War, Historical, Oppression

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

  133 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.

  Simone Weil

  Crush, Sides, Oppression

  Simone Weil (1978). “Lectures on Philosophy”, p.139, Cambridge University Press

  105 Copy quote

  Show source

• Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

  Karl Marx

  Religious, Atheist, Heart

  Karl Marx, Joseph O'Malley (1977). “Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy Of Right'”, p.131, CUP Archive

  281 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  90 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  110 Copy quote

  Show source