OPPRESSION QUOTES
quotations about oppression
I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means -- except by getting off his back.
LEO TOLSTOY
What Then Must We Do?
It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty -- to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.
SAMUEL ADAMS
The Life and Public Service of Samuel Adams
Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.
RONALD REAGAN
speech, June 8, 1982
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
The True Believer
There is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
JOHN LOCKE
A Letter Concerning Toleration
Hitherto, every form of society has been based ... on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes.
KARL MARX
The Communist Manifesto
Death is preferable -- it is a milder fate than tyranny.
AESCHYLUS
Agamemnon
Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back!
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Oppression causeth rebellion.
TERENCE
attributed, Day's Collacon
Yes! 'tis written with lightning, and heard in the gale
That Jehovah shall triumph and Israel prevail;
That oppression, all ghastly with fire and with sword,
Must expire at the withering frown of the Lord.
JAMES LINEN
The Poetical and Prose Writings of James Linen
The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them.
EMILY BRONTË
Wuthering Heights
Oppression makes a poor country.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
To accept passively an unjust system is to cooperate with that system; thereby the oppressed become as evil as the oppressor. Non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Stride Toward Freedom
All the gang of those who rule us
Hope our quarrels never stop
Helping them to split and fool us
So they can remain on top.
BERTOLT BRECHT
"Solidarity Song"
Once slavery in America was not seen as radical. It became, instead, a revolutionary idea that slaves should be freed. When we have lived under a pernicious power long enough, no matter how oppressive, we grow so accustomed to the yoke that its removal seems frightening, even wrong.
GERRY L. SPENCE
From Freedom to Slavery
Ignorance will fall down and worship idols, and bend the neck to receive the yoke of oppression.
JAMES LINEN
The Poetical and Prose Writings of James Linen
Oppression cannot prosper where none will submit to be enslaved.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Oppression worketh out its own destruction.
JAMES LINEN
The Poetical and Prose Writings of James Linen
The more you try to suppress us, the larger we get.
ICE-T
Freedom of Speech
If I were going to set out to oppress other people, I would surely prefer to select for my victims persons whose first response is forgiveness rather than persons whose first response is revenge.
JEFFRIE G. MURPHY
Getting Even