Quotessence
Home / Topics / Oppression Quotes

Oppression Quotes

Browse 1520 quotes about Oppression.

Related topics

PeopleMenOppressedIfsWorldInjusticeThinkingWayLibertyGovernmentOppressorsWarTyrannyHumansMeanViolenceMayExploitationBlackFormHas BeensKnowsStatesLawPoliticalJusticeLongRightsShouldCountryDoeGivingSufferingClassIndividualKindGroupsOrderFightingForcePolitical OppressionSocialStruggleRacismSlaveryCultureMindNationsPersonsChildrenCommunityInjustice And OppressionWantAmericaCausesCrueltyEndsFactsFeelsPovertyRevolutionLiberationRaceReasonWellsYearsEvilHandsHelpingPoliticsSelfViolentWhiteBelieveConditionsEnemyFeministHuman BeingsPoorDemocracyDifferentEnoughFreedomHatredMajorityNeedsRealStillsTodayCertainDominationEarthFacesFoundHumanityLyingObjectsResistanceSometimesSpiritmore

Oppression Quotes

“Human Bulldozer (The Sonnet) I am no Gandhi, that I'd sit quietly and spin a wheel, While people suffer in the clutches of imperialism. I am no Guevara either, that I would shoot anyone, Who looks suspicious, in my revolution for freedom. Gandhi and Guevara are two extremes of human struggle, One glorifies submission, another heralds new oppression. Neither is fit for an infant world aiming to be civilized, For one lacks backbone, the other weaponizes assumption. We may take a little from Gandhi, a little from Guevara, Without rigidity we may administer them accordingly. I am an accountable human living in a world run by biases, So most times I'll keep quiet and act as a harmless dummy. But whenever inhumanity goes overboard wreaking havoc, The human bulldozer will rise to cleanse every epoch.”

RevolutionSocial JusticeOppressionIndifferenceAccountabilityNonviolencePolitical ScienceHuman Rights ActivistHumanitarian PoetryPassive Resistance
Book:High Voltage Habib: Gospel of Undoctrination
Create image

“When inhumanity is committed on others, we turn our back, when it's committed on us, we compromise. That's how the world works, nay, that's how we work - we the so-called civilized beings. What civilized! What sentient! What sapient! We haven't even developed the spine to stand up to oppression and dehumanization! Then how on earth could we call ourselves civilized, sentient, and sapient!”

Human NatureSocial JusticeInjusticeOppressionIndifferenceHuman BehaviorHumanity And SocietyHumanitarian CrisisHuman Rights ViolationCivilized Beings
Book:The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work
Create image

“No Compromise (The Sonnet) Only cowards make compromise, When it comes to affairs of humanity. Beings of conscience and character, Prefer revolution over indignity. Only bugs bow before oppression, Driven by insecurity and indifference. Creatures called the homo sapiens, Choose annihilation before compliance. Only wild animals of the cruel jungle, Accept self-preservation as the norm. For advanced organism such as humans, Inclusion is life in joy and in storm. Those with backbone stand up for humanity. Unarmed and unbending we'll conquer inhumanity.”

HumanityCourageIntegrityConscienceDignityOppressionIndifferenceNonviolenceSonnetCivilized Beings
Book:Solo Standing on Guard: Life Before Law
Create image

“Liberationville (The Sonnet) When the blood is boiling and conscience is screaming, Stop not wishing for a messiah to appear. When the heart is beating and the mind is restless, Sit not praying for the miseries to disappear. When the veins are burning and nerves are revolting, Stay not cooped up in a cocoon of petty pleasures. When the lungs are choking and cells are aching, Stay not inanimate out of insecurities and fears. When the spine is bending and the head is drooping, Stay not silent submitting to tribal identity. When the knees are trembling and the throat is thirsty, Stand not frail as servant of conformity. When the eyes are teary and lips are dreary, never consider sitting still. Obliterate loyalty to atrocities of the norm waking up to liberationville.”

SilenceLibertyConscienceInjusticeHumanitarianOppressionIndifferenceSonnetBe The ChangeSpeak Up
Book:Mad About Humans: World Maker's Almanac
Create image

“Gaslighting can be subtle and unintentional, but as feminist writer Nora Samaran explains, it is particularly insidious because it undermines people's trust in their own capacities: "If you think of the power, the strength, the capacity to effect change that women who trust themselves are capable of, what we are losing when we doubt ourselves is an indomitable force for social change that is significant and therefore, to some, frightening. In other words, our capacity to know ourselves is immensely powerful." All forms of oppression seem to have this tendency: racism, heteropatriarchy, ableism, ageism, colonization, and other systems of oppression contort people's insights, experiences, and differences into weaknesses or deny them outright. For this reason, the emergence of trust can be a powerful weapon, which is being recovered all the time through struggle.”

DoubtTrustOppressionEmergenceGaslightingPatriachy
Book:Joyful Militancy: Building Thriving Resistance in Toxic Times
Create image

“The patriarchy longs for the days 'when men were men' and women were oppressed, subservient - and they can see no wrong in it. It justifies its former power and lust to hold on to it - and if possible, to regain it by quoting fundamentalist and radical religion and tradition and calling it 'love'. Some love. How can oppression and power over another person's life ever be 'love'?”

LoveReligionWomenPowerTraditionLustOppressionRadicalWrongOppressedPatriarchyFundamentalistSubservientJustifiesMen Were Men
Book:Autumn Burning: Dreadtime Stories for the Wicked Soul
Create image

“How reprehensible it is when those blessed with commodities insist on ignoring the poor. Better to torment them, force them into indentured servitude, inflict compulsion and blows—this at least produces a connection, fury and a pounding heart, and these too constitute a form of relationship. But to cower in elegant homes behind golden garden gates, fearful lest the breath of warm humankind touch you, unable to indulge in extravagances for fear they might be glimpsed by the embittered oppressed, to oppress and yet lack the courage to show yourself as an oppressor, even to fear the ones you are oppressing, feeling ill at ease in your own wealth and begrudging others their ease, to resort to disagreeable weapons that require neither true audacity nor manly courage, to have money, but only money, without splendor: That’s what things look like in our cities at present”

WealthPoorMoneyPovertyCourageOppressionInequalityCowardiceUrbanCityClass WarfareUrbanizationNeighborhoods
Book:The Tanners
Create image

“Oh! What honour for the female sex! It is perfectly obvious that God has special regard for it when all these wretched people who destroyed the whole Kingdom – now recovered and made safe by a woman, something that 5000 men could not have done – and the traitors [have been] exterminated. Before the event they would scarcely have believed this possible.”

MenWarWomenLeadershipFreedomCourageFeminismStrengthVictoryRespectEmpowermentSalvationGenderOppressionJoan Of Arc
Book:Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc
Create image

“When we take your person into account, you who are a young maiden, to whom God gives the strength and power to be the champion who casts the rebels down and feeds France with the sweet, nourishing milk of peace, here indeed is something quite extraordinary! For if God performed such a great number of miracles through Joshua who conquered many a place and cast down many an enemy, he, Joshua, was a strong and powerful man. But, after all, a woman – a simple shepherdess – braver than any man ever was in Rome! As far as God is concerned, this was easily accomplished. But as for us, we never heard tell of such an extraordinary marvel, for the prowess of all the great men of the past cannot be compared to this woman's whose concern it is to cast out our enemies. This is God's doing: it is He who guides her and who has given her a heart greater than that of any man.”

MenWarWomenLeadershipFreedomCourageFeminismStrengthVictoryRespectEmpowermentSalvationGenderOppressionJoan Of Arc
Book:Ditié de Jehanne d'Arc
Create image

“As a child I believed I was happy, but I don’t know if I was happy because I was told I was, or if I truly was. My happiness was prescribed, and it came with operating instructions: solidarity, collective life, optimism. The dosage? Take some every hour for twelve hours a day and every hour for twelve hours a night.”

LifeCourageOppression
Book:The Hard Road Out: One Woman’s Escape From North Korea
Create image

“Giants in Jeans Sonnet 20 Who’s the saint, who’s the tyrant, Is not determined by the show of strength. Real mark of human character, Lies in your gentleness radiant. The strongest souls on earth, Keep their strength hidden unless needed, Whereas the shallow and the entitled, Walk around trotting over the hearts of the helpless. Turning the other cheek to the oppressor, May work in a world of fairies. In our primitive world of organic apes, Turning the other cheek means aiding inhumanities. Love is the only answer, there is no question, But it is a lover's duty to stand up to oppression.”

CharacterStrengthSocial JusticeHumanitarianOppressionAccountabilitySonnetLove Thy NeighborBook Of PoemsTurn The Other Cheek
Book:Giants in Jeans: 100 Sonnets of United Earth
Create image

“Never give up. Things may be hard, but if you quit trying they'll never get better. Stop worrying and start trusting God. It will be worth it.”

GodTruthChristianPurposeReligiousHeartbreakGod QuotesOppressionFaith QuotesPositive AttitudeHard TimesFaith In GodTruth Of LifeNever Give UpWorth ItReligious FaithPurpose Driven LifeDon T Give UpFailure QuotesGod S LoveGod S GraceGod S PlanReligion SpiritualityStop WorryingFaith In YourselfFailure And SuccessGod S WillGods PowerReligion And PhilosophyBe EncouragedGermany Kent QuotesPurpose In LifeGermany KentThe Hope GuruHope GuruGermany Kent QuoteHang In ThereDon T QuitFaith StrengthFailure And AttitudeWorry QuotesReligion ChristianityMotivational SpeakersTrust GodWalk By FaithWorrying Over NothingHard Times QuotesOppression QuotesTruth InspirationalFailure SuccessDon T StopFaith In ActionBe FearlessWorry MotivationalDo What You CanFaith InspirationalHard Times In Your LifeKeep God FirstTrust God Above AllTrust God ProvisionBe RelentlessWomen Speakers
Author:Germany Kent
Create image

“A utopian system, when established by men, is likely to be synonymous with a dystopian depression. The only way for perfect peace by man is absolute control of all wrongs. Bully-cultures find this: with each and every mistake, another village idiot is shamed into nothingness and mindlessly shut down by the herd. This is a superficial peace made by force and by fear, one in which there is no freedom to breathe; and the reason it is impossible for man to maintain freedom and peace for everyone at the same time. Christ, on the other hand, transforms, instead of controls, by instilling his certain inner peace. This is the place where one realizes that only his holiness is and feels like true freedom, rather than like imprisonment, and, too, why Hell, I imagine, a magnified version of man's never-ending conflict between freedom and peace, would be the flesh's ultimate utopia - yet its ultimate regret.”

WarPhilosophyGodRealityGovernmentPoliticalCultureForceHeavenFearPeaceChristFreedomSinHellGraceSocietyRegretBattleConflictDepressionForgivenessDevilMercyTransformationSalvationUnityChaosInner PeaceTyrannyTheologyConfusionOppressionVanityManSatanHolinessControlEstablishmentDictatorshipBullyUtopiaGood IntentionsDystopiaImprisonmentPolice StateApologeticsSuperficialityHerd MentalityArtificialityTotalitarian
Book:Healology
Create image

“The same patriarchy that oppresses women oppresses nonhuman animals. Farmed animals and “housewives,” “lab” animals and prostitutes, dancing bears and girls in the sex trade—all have too long been exploited by the same patriarchal hierarchy wherein the comparatively weak are exploited for the benefit of the powerful. Those who are aware of history, of patriarchy and of the feminist movement, tend to understand how difficult it is—and how important—for people to rethink basic behaviors in order to bring about deep and lasting change. We must rethink how we speak, how we spend our time, and what we consume. This is as true for fighting sexism as it is for fighting speciesism—or any other form of domination, exploitation, and oppression. We must change our lives first, and most fundamentally. I hope that readers working to improve the lives of girls and women . . . will realize that they can and must choose not to continue to exploit nonhuman animals while working to liberate girls and women.”

WomenChangeSocial JusticeOppressionGirlsExploitationPatriarchyIntersectionalitySpeciesismActivsim
Book:Speaking Up for Animals: An Anthology of Women's Voices
Create image

“Most of the time we approach life with an armored front for two reasons: 1) We're not comfortable with emotions and equate vulnerability with weakness, and/or 2) Our experiences of trauma have taught us that vulnerability is actually dangerous. Violence and oppression have made our soft front a liability, and we struggle to find a place emotionally and physically safe enough to be vulnerable.”

EmotionViolenceWeaknessTraumaOppressionVulnerability
Book:Braving the Wilderness
Create image

“God takes the side of the suffering —those who are suffering in body, mind, heart, spirit, or soul. God not only takes the side of the suffering; God weeps when we bear the brunt of violence, oppression, and poverty brought about by condition, circumstance, or even choice.”

GodSufferingChristianityPovertyViolenceChristian LifeOppressionChristian Living
Book:Everything Good about God Is True: Choosing Faith
Create image

“The wealth gap between America's richest and poorest families has doubled in the past thirty years. If the systems don't reform, they will eventually collapse under the weight of their corruption or be torn down by masses who will rightfully view them only as architects of their oppression.”

AmericaWealthPovertyRevolutionIncomeOppressionIncome InequalityWealth Gap
Book:Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Create image

“We Negroes of America are tired of a world divided superficially on the basis of blood and color, but in reality on the basis of poverty and power—the rich over the poor, no matter what their color. We Negroes of America are tired of a world in which it is possible for any group of people to say to another: "You have no right to happiness, or freedom, or the joy of life." We are tired of a world where forever we work for someone else and the profits are not ours. We are tired of a world where, when we raise our voices against oppression, we are immediately jailed, intimidated, beaten, sometimes lynched. Nicolás GuiIlén has been in prison in Cuba, Jacques Roumain, in Haiti, Angelo Herndon in the United States. Today a letter comes from the great Indian writer, Raj Anand, saying that he cannot be with us here in Paris because the British police in England have taken his passport from him. I say, we darker peoples of the earth are tired of a world in which things like that can happen.”

RacePovertyPowerRacismDiscriminationOppressionAfrican AmericansBlacksRace Relations
Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings
Create image

“Notwithstanding the memories of slavery, and in the face poverty, ignorance, terrorism, and subjugation still deeply woven into their lives, the embittered past of blacks was taken onto a much higher plane of intellectual and artistic consideration during the Renaissance.”

PovertySlaveryTerrorismOppressionAfrican American AuthorsCreative GeniusIntellectualsAfrican LiteratureHarlem RenaissanceAfrican American MusicHarlem Renaissance HistoriansAfrican American ArtistsDemograghic ShiftsMoral Victories
Book:Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
Create image

“One would never defeat one's circumstances by working and saving one's pennies; one would never, by working, acquire that many pennies, and, besides, the social treatment accorded even the most successful Negroes proved that one needed, in order to be free, something more than a bank account. One needed a handle, a lever, a means of inspiring fear. It was absolutely clear that the police would whip you and take you in as long as they could get away with it, and that everyone else—housewives, taxi-drivers, elevator boys, dishwashers, bartenders, lawyers, judges, doctors, and grocers—would never, by the operation of any generous human feeling, cease to use you as an outlet for his frustrations and hostilities.”

PovertyRacismOppression
Book:The Fire Next Time
Create image

“It’s been about a month since I stopped turning in homework. Life’s harder when you’re the only one who sees the actual gears of oppression at work—and I see no way out. Society has me in its machine. I’m half-charged, half-concerned, half-awake. Zonked.”

SchoolSocietyOppressionHomeworkBenzehabeZonked
Book:Zonked Out: The Teen Psychologist of San Marcos Who Killed Her Santa Claus and Found the Blue-Black Edge of the Love Universe
Create image

“One class presses on another; for all are aiming to procure respect on account of their property: and property, once gained, will procure the respect due only to talents and virtue. Men neglect the duties incumbent on man, yet are treated like demi-gods; religion is also separated from morality by a ceremonial veil, yet men wonder that the world is almost, literally speaking, a den of sharpers or oppressors.”

WealthClassPropertyOppressionSecularismIdolatryClass Struggle
Book:A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Create image

“Power is given only to those you allow to have power over you. No man was born with a master. The only master of all is the Creator, and he created all men to be free. Freedom is a God-given right, not a human-granted gift. No man should have to fight to breathe in good health and peace.”

GodTruthSufferingHumanityFightingPoliticsPeaceJusticeFreedomPovertyStruggleRightsHealthHumanSlaverySlaveHuman RightsCreatorBreatheGiftOppressionManFightRightFreeWorld PeaceWillWillpowerHumaneMasterFreewillCollective PowerGgod
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
Create image

“When I say that we must establish values with originate in sisterhood, I mean to say that we must not accept, even for a moment, male notions of what non-violence is. These notions have never condemned the systematic violence against us. The men who hold these notions have never renounced the male behaviours, privileges, values and conceits which are in and of themselves acts of violence against us.”

WomenViolenceFeminismOppressionRadicalLiberationNon Violence
Author:Andrea Dworkin
Create image

“But too often men react to women in positions of power with misogyny, often in sexualized terms. I have heard men in such situations talk about how "I'd like to fuck that bitch and teach her a lesson," for example. That kind of reaction demonstrates that no matter what the class position of a man and woman, men can use the weapon of sexualized violence to attempt to assert their dominance.”

MenWomenOppressionSexismMisogynyRadical FeminismSexual Violence
Author:Robert Jensen
Create image