Oppression Quotes - Page 23

• The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Feminist, Realizing, Boat

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• The ever-present impulse is to push against restriction and, in so doing, to feel intolerably hemmed in. Thus in practice, every liberation increases the sense of oppression. Nor is the paradox merely in the mind: the laws enacted to secure the rights of every person and group, by creating protective boundaries, create new barriers.

  Jacques Barzun

  Rights, Law, Practice

  "The Culture We Deserve" by Jacques Barzun, Wesleyan University Press, (p. 97), 1989.

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• Every new Fashion is a refusal to inherit, a subversion against the oppression of the preceding Fashion; Fashion experiences itself as a Right, the natural right of the present over the past.

  Roland Barthes

  Fashion, Past, Natural

  Roland Barthes (1983). “Systeme de la Mode”, p.112, Univ of California Press

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• Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass.

  Immanuel Kant

  Thinking, Revolution, Reform

  Immanuel Kant (1983). “Perpetual Peace and Other Essays: on Politics, History, and Morals”, p.42, Hackett Publishing

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• The object of a dialogical-liberterian action is not to 'dislodge' the oppressed from a mythological reality in order to 'bind' them to another reality. On the contrary, the object of dialogical action is to make it possible for the oppressed, by perceiving their adhesion, to opt to transform an unjust reality." "In order for the oppressed to unite they must first cut the umbilical cord of magic and myth which binds them to the world of oppression; the unity which links them to each other must be of a different nature.

  Paulo Freire

  Cutting, Reality, Order

  "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". Book by Paulo Freire, Chapter 4, Unity for Liberation, 1968.

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• Dignity, in private men and in governments, has been little else than a stately and stiff perseverance in oppression; and spirit, as it is called, little else than the foam of hard-mouthed insolence.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Perseverance, Men, Littles

  Walter Savage Landor (1824). “Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen”

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• The idea that the object of constitutions is not to confirm the predominance of any interest, but to prevent it; to preserve with equal care the independence of labour and the security of property; to make the rich safe against envy, and the poor against oppression, marks the highest level attained by the statesmanship of Greece.

  Lord Acton

  Ideas, Envy, Independence

  John Emerich Edward Dalberg, Lord Acton (2016). “The History of Freedom (and other Essays)”, p.35, Jazzybee Verlag

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• What can still that hunger of the heart which sickens the eye for beauty, and makes sweet-scented ease an oppression?

  George Eliot

  Beauty, Sweet, Heart

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.3376, Delphi Classics

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• Oppression makes a poor country.

  William Penn

  Country, Poor, Poor Countries

  William Penn (1778). “Fruits of Solitude. ... Eighth edition”, p.75

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• I also believe that US backing for Israeli policies of expansion of the Israeli state and oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of bitter division and violence in the world.

  Clare Short

  Believe, People, Division

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• Speakers' nerves affect them in various ways. Some tremble, some become frenzied. I lose all confidence, and suffer from a leaden oppression that makes me wonder why I ever agreed to speak at all; the Tomb and the Conqueror Worm seem preferable to delivering the stupid and piffling speech I have so carefully prepared.

  Robertson Davies

  Stupid, Suffering, Speech

  Robertson Davies (2008). “Selected works on the art of writing”, Penguin Group Canada

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• I do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the oppression of women.

  Richard Dawkins

  Revulsion, Visceral, Feels

  "Fury Over Richard Dawkins's Burka Jibe as Atheist Tells of His 'visceral Revulsion' at Muslim Dress". www.dailymail.co.uk. August 10, 2010.

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• I may boldly speak In right, though proud oppression will not hear me!

  Thomas Otway

  May, Proud, Speak

  1682 Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered, act1, sc.1.

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• To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor's real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume!

  Chinua Achebe

  Real, Mean, Names

  Chinua Achebe (2011). “The Education of a British-Protected Child”, p.67, Penguin UK

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• Strikes and boycotting are akin to war, and can be justified only on grounds analogous to those which justify war, viz., intolerable injustice and oppression.

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  War, Injustice And Oppression, Justified

  "Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes". Book by Rutherford B. Hayes, 1922 - 1926.

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• The artivist (artist +activist) uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression – by any medium necessary. The artivist merges commitment to freedom and justice with the pen, the lens, the brush, the voice, the body, and the imagination. The artivist knows that to make an observation is to have an obligation.

  M. K. Asante

  Struggle, Commitment, Fighting

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• Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law. Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Passion, Views, Law

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• After Bruno's death, during the first half of the seventeenth century, Descartes seemed about to take the leadership of human thought... in promoting an evolution doctrine as regards the mechanical formation of the solar system... but his constant dread of persecution, both from Catholics and Protestants, led him steadily to veil his thoughts and even to suppress them. ...Since Roger Bacon, perhaps, no great thinker had been so completely abased and thwarted by theological oppression.

  Andrew Dickson White

  Catholic, Veils, Half

  "A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom". Book by Andrew Dickson White, Vol.1, Ch.1: The Visible Universe, p. 57, 1896.

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• The power of citizenship as a shield against oppression was widely known from the example of Paul 's Roman citizenship, which sent the centurion scurrying to his higher-ups with the message: "Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman".

  Robert H. Jackson

  Men, Example, Shields

  "Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160, 182". Judicial opinion, 1941.

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• Lasting peace is sought, it is essential to adopt international measures to improve the lot of the masses. The welfare of the entire human race must replace hunger and oppression. People of the world must be taught to give up envy, avarice and rancour.

  Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

  Giving Up, Race, People

  "I. Milletlerarası Gençlik Kongresi" by Selçuk University, (p. 19), 1988.

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• Violence, factory politics - these things simply form some bedrock of what interests me, but I'm a child of the twentieth century. And I don't see reality and its violence, wars, oppression, etc., and fiction as counterposed.

  Rachel Kushner

  Children, War, Reality

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• What is surprising is not that oppression should make its appearance only after higher forms of economy have been reached, but that it should always accompany them.

  Simone Weil

  Appearance, Economics, Economy

  Simone Weil (2013). “Oppression and Liberty”, p.59, Routledge

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• But it is not really difference the oppressor fears so much as similarity.

  Cherrie Moraga

  Differences, Similarity, Oppressors

  Cherríe Moraga (1983). “Loving in the war years: lo que nunca pasó por sus labios”, South End Pr

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• If you have to be careful because of oppression and censorship, this pressure produces diamonds.

  Tatyana Tolstaya

  Adversity, Pressure, Censorship

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• toleration of exploitation, oppression, and injustice points to a condition lying like a pall over the whole of society; it is apathy, an unconcern that is incapable of suffering.

  Dorothee Solle

  Lying, Suffering, Apathy

  Dorothee Sölle (1975). “Suffering”, Fortress Press

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