Oppression Quotes - Page 6

• As there is oppression of the majority such oppression will be fought with increasing hatred.

  Bram Fischer

  Hatred, Majority

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• The last stage but one of every civilisation, is characterised by the forced political unification of its constituent parts, into a single greater whole.

  Arnold J. Toynbee

  Freedom, Power, Political

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• Oppression is allowed to survive because people don't like to talk about it or about acts like what happened. We're hoping to counter some of that with the help of this banner.

  Tim Gordon

  People, Helping, Banner

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• Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of the day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers (adminstrators) too plainly proves a deliberate, systematic plan of reducing us to slavery.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Liberty, Slavery

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• Everywhere you go on the continent of Europe at this hour you see the conflict between militarism and industrialism. You see the expansion of industrial power pushed forward by the energy, hope, and thrift of men, and you see the development arrested, diverted, crippled, and defeated by measures which are dictated by military considerations.

  William Graham Sumner

  Military, Power, Men

  William Graham Sumner (1919). “War and Other Essays”

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  In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

  Edmund Burke

  Freedom, Exercise, Democracy

  Edmund Burke (1790). “Reflections on the Revolution in France: And on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. In a Letter Intended to Have Been Sent to a Gentleman in Paris”, p.186

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• If a man wishes to rid himself of a feeling of unbearable oppression, he may have to take hashish.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Men, Feelings, Wish

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1931). “The Works of Friedrich Nietzsche”

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• Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honorable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Names, Matter, Today

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• My white skin disgusts me. My passport disgusts me. They are the marks of an insufferable privilege bought at the price of others' agony. If I could peel myself inside out I would be glad. If I could become part of the oppressed I would be free.

  Robin Morgan

  Freedom, Agony, White

  Robin Morgan (2014). “The Demon Lover: The Roots of Terrorism”, p.183, Open Road Media

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• Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

  Emma Lazarus

  Inspirational, Freedom, Tired

  "The New Colossus" l. 10 (1883).

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• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

  Ayn Rand

  Freedom, Rights, Political

  Ayn Rand (1964). “The Virtue of Selfishness”, p.100, Penguin

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• People have got to get together and work together. I'm tired of the kind of oppression that white people have inflicted on us and are still trying to inflict.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Tired, White, People

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• Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.

  Paulo Freire

  Mean, Past, Understanding

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.60, 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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• Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

  Robert Kennedy

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• There is never any fair and thorough discussion of heretical opinions... The greatest harm done is to those who are not heretics, and whose whole mental development is cramped and their reason cowed, by the fear of heresy.

  John Stuart Mill

  Speech, Done, Development

  John Stuart Mill (1864). “On Liberty”, p.61

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• In recent years, we have seen the United States back away from pressuring the Castro regime, under the misguided view that placating them with an open hand would yield progress. That naivete has invited only more cruelty and oppression in return.

  Mitt Romney

  Yield, Views, Hands

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• In the final analysis, the incident is seen as originating from an emotional expression of the frustration and anger of the proud people of China who had been subject to ever increasing oppression from without and decadent corruption from within.

  Chen-Ning Yang

  Anger, Frustration, Emotional

  Chen Ning Yang (2005). “Selected Papers, 1945-1980, with Commentary”, p.247, World Scientific

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• The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.

  Paulo Freire

  Community, Leader, Favors

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.103, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.

  Paulo Freire

  Thinking, Self, Revolutionary Leaders

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.132, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Coming out, all the way out, is offered more and more as the political solution to our oppression.

  Jane Rule

  Political, Way, Coming Out

  Jane Rule (2013). “Outlander: Short Stories and Essays”, p.247, Open Road Media

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• Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Peace, Revenge, Men

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.115, Beacon Press

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• I would rather quit public life at seventy, and quit it forever, than to retain public life at a sacrifice to my own self-respect. I will not vote for any law which will make fair for me and foul for another. The blacklist is the most cruel form of oppression ever devised by man for the infliction of suffering upon his weaker fellows.

  Joseph Gurney Cannon

  Sacrifice, Men, Self

  "Uncle Joe Cannon" by L. White Busby, (p. 278), 1927.

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• The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

  H. L. Mencken

  Government, Usa, Literature

  "The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations". Book edited by Antony Jay, 1996.

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• Pride in what and who you are is a strong foundation, but don't be defined by your oppression; use your anger, don't let it use you.

  Dave McKean

  Strong, Pride, Foundation

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