Oppressors Quotes - Page 3

• It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors.

  Paulo Freire

  Oppressed

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.40, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Rarely has a people paid the lavish compliment and taken the subtle revenge of turning its oppressor's speech into sorcery.

  Bill Vaughan

  Revenge, Taken, People

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• Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

  Anne Lamott

  Inspirational, Motivational, Voice

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.28, Anchor

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• Evil is a matter of choice. Those people who have been victimized and refuse to imitate their oppressors are in my mind the greatest heroes we have.

  Andrew Vachss

  Hero, People, Evil

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• A people who free themselves from foreign domination will be free culturally only if,
  without complexes and without underestimating the importance of positive accretions from
  oppressor and other cultures, they return to the upward paths of their own culture, which is
  nourished by the living reality of its environment, and which negates both harmful influences
  and any kind of subjection to foreign culture. Thus, it may be seen that if imperialist
  domination has the vital need to practice cultural oppression, national liberation is necessarily
  an act of culture

  Amilcar Cabral

  Reality, Other Cultures, Practice

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• Pablo Casals is a very great artist. What I admire is the firm stand he has taken not only against the oppressors of his countrymen, but also against those opportunists who are always ready to compromise with the Devil. He perceives clearly that the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.

  Albert Einstein

  Taken, Artist, Evil

  Einstein's tribute to Pablo Casals on March 30, 1953. "Conversations with Casals". Book by Josep Maria Corredor, p. 11, archive.org. 1957.

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• Freedom of speech is the great bulwark of liberty; they prosper and die together: And it is the terror of traitors and oppressors, and a barrier against them. It produces excellent writers, and encourages men of fine genius.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Men, Freedom Of Speech, Liberty

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• The oppressed find in the oppressors their model of 'manhood.'

  Paulo Freire

  Models, Oppressed, Manhood

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.33, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Never befriend the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressor.

  Ogden Nash

  Loyalty, Adversity, Prepared

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• The ignorance of the oppressed is strength for the oppressor.

  A. R. Bernard

  Ignorance, Oppressed

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• The basic function of the government everywhere in all times, whatever title it adopts and whatever its origin and organisation may be, is always that of oppressing and exploiting the masses, of defending the oppressors and the exploiters: and it's principal, characteristic and indispensable instruments are the police agent and the tax-collector, the soldier and the gaoler - to whom must be invariably added the trader in lies, be he priest of schoolmaster, remunerated or protected by the government to enslave minds and make them docilely accept the yoke.

  Errico Malatesta

  Lying, Government, Police

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• No civilization can exist part free and part slave.
  
  ..We have never had any other kind of civilization. It has always been that way. There has always been a division of man. There has always been the conqueror and conquered-the master and slave-the ruler and the ruled-the oppressor and the oppressed. There has never been content nor unity. There has been only discontent and disunity.

  Walter Russell

  Men, Civilization, Historical

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• The establishment of Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world.

  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Moving, Islamic, World

  "Iran's President Says Israel Must Be 'Wiped Off the Map'". "The World Without Zionism" conference, www.nytimes.com. October 26, 2005.

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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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• To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Action, Injustice

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

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• If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions, not wholly unworthy of its almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Soul, World

  Abraham Lincoln (1989). “Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 1: 1832-1858: Library of America #45”, p.65, Library of America

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• Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.

  Mark Twain

  Kings, Bread, Earth

  Mark Twain (1992). “Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890”, Library of America

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• Be persecuted, rather than be a persecutor. Be crucified, rather than be a crucifier. Be treated unjustly, rather than treat anyone unjustly. Be oppressed, rather than be an oppressor. Be gentle rather than zealous. Lay hold of goodness, rather than justice.

  Isaac of Nineveh

  Spiritual, Justice, Zealous

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• Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men.

  William Bradford

  Kindness, Son, Men

  William Bradford (1952). “Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647”, p.63, Rutgers University Press

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• Maine should be pleased that its animal is not a waverer, and rather than fight, lets the primed quill fall. Shallow oppressor, intruder, insister, you have found a resister.

  Marianne Moore

  Fall, Fighting, Animal

  Marianne Moore (1956). “Like a bulwark”, Viking Press, 1957

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• And so today, the undermining of the home and family is on the increase, with the devil anxiously working to displace the father as the head of the home and create rebellion among the children. [Isaiah] describes the condition when [he] states, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them." and then these words follow-and consider these words seriously when you think of those political leaders who are promoting birth control and abortion: "O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths."

  Ezra Taft Benson

  Children, Father, Home

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• [We need] someone bold, to put himself at the head of the disaffected and rally them against the oppressor. Some great character who could captivate the people... someone wise who could direct the actions of an unbridled and floating multitude.

  Jean-Paul Marat

  Wise, Character, People

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• It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power - power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

  Eric Hoffer

  Want, Oppressed

  "War and Conflict Quotations: A Worldwide Dictionary". Book by Jean Freestone Thomsett and Michael Thomsett, 1997.

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• We have to stop arresting prostitutes and not arresting traffickers and pimps. It's absurd. We're arresting the victim or the survivor and not the oppressor.

  Gloria Steinem

  Pimp, Survivor, Victim

  Interview with Max Miller, bigthink.com. October 28, 2010.

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• People who have been wronged will attempt to right the wrong; they would not be people if they didn't. They can rarely afford to be scrupulous about the means they will use. They will use such means as come to hand. Neither, in the main, will they distinguish one oppressor from another, nor see through to the root principle of their oppression.

  James A. Baldwin

  Mean, Hands, Roots

  "Negroes Are Anti-Semitic Because They're Anti-White" by James A. Baldwin, archive.nytimes.com. April 9, 1967.

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