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Oppression Quotes

Browse 1520 quotes about Oppression.

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Oppression Quotes

“The gold standard did not collapse. Governments abolished it in order to pave the way for inflation. The whole grim apparatus of oppression and coercion, policemen, customs guards, penal courts, prisons, in some countries even executioners, had to be put into action in order to destroy the gold standard.”

WayCountryWholeGovernmentActionOrderStandardsGoldCourtPrisonOppressionCustomsCollapseInflationPolicemenCoercionGrimExecutionersGold Standard
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

FeelsPersonsMadePoliticalPeaceJusticeClassPovertySocietyIgnoranceSafeSocial JusticePropertyOppressionOrganizedPatrioticDeniedConspiracyOppressedBlack HistoryPrivate PropertyProperty RightsDegradePeace And JusticeThis SocietyPeace JusticeSocial ClassClass WarfareEnding PovertyEconomic JusticeWorld PovertyLaw And JusticeJustice And MercyAmerican JusticeClass DistinctionClasses Of SocietyClass ConflictEconomic ClassJustice DeniedJustice Will Prevail
Author:Frederick Douglass
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“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

PoliticalFreedomLibertyPowerDemandTyrannyOppressionAfrican AmericanCorporationsTyrantsOppressedDissentFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyCivil LibertiesAgitationHuman FreedomRights And FreedomsLabor UnionAbolitionistEternal VigilancePower StruggleHuman PowerPrice Of FreedomSlavery In AmericaBig CorporationsInjustice And OppressionDemocracy And Human RightsAmerican PowerCorrupt PowerPower And CorruptionStruggle For FreedomAuthority And Power
Author:Frederick Douglass
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“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.”

LiteratureFreedomLibertyLimitsTyrannyOppressionCorporationsEnduranceTyrantsOppressedFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsDemocracies HaveBearing ArmsHuman FreedomRights And FreedomsPrice Of FreedomBig CorporationsInjustice And OppressionDemocracy And Human RightsCorrupt PowerPower And Corruption
Book:Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings
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“The abused child goes on living within those who have survived such torture, a torture that ended with total repression. They live with the darkness of fear, oppression, and threats. When all its attempts to move the adult to heed its story have failed, it resorts to the language of symptoms to make itself heard. Enter addiction, psychosis, criminality.”

ChildrenStoriesMovingLanguageDarknessHeardGoes OnAdultsThreatAddictionOppressionTortureSurvivedSymptomsResortsRepressionHeedPsychosisCriminalityAbused Children
Author:Alice Miller
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“I don’t claim to know an over-arching ‘Meaning of Life,’ but I do operate under the understanding that life should not be lived under the pretense that it is simply a test propagated by an invisible, intangible, Creator-God. And it should not be spent identifying with religious traditions and organized groups that, historically, have been at the root of a tremendous amount of oppression and violence.”

KnowsShouldHas BeensUnderstandingReligiousViolenceGroupsAmountTraditionRootsTestsClaimsCreatorInvisibleOppressionMeaning Of LifeOrganizedPretenseIdentifyingIntangibleReligious TraditionsCreator God
Author:David G. McAfee
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“Planted by your care? No! Your oppression planted them in America... nourished by your indulgence? They grew by your neglect of them... As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them... men whose behaviour on many occasions has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them.”

MenPersonsCareAmericaLibertyBloodSonRevolutionGrewOppressionOccasionsNeglectBehaviourIndulgenceAmerican RevolutionRecoil
Author:Isaac Barre
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“Freemasonry must stand upon the Rock of Truth, religion, political, social, and economic. Nothing is so worthy of its care as freedom in all its aspects. "Free" is the most vital part of Freemasonry. It means freedom of thought and expression, freedom of spiritual and religious ideals, freedom from oppression, freedom from ignorance, superstition, vice and bigotry, freedom to acquire and possess property, to go and come at pleasure, and to rise or fall according to will of ability.”

MeanCareSpiritualPoliticalFallSocialReligiousAbilityPleasureEconomicRocksIgnoranceExpressionAspectIdealsPropertyVicesWorthyOppressionAcquireBigotrySuperstitionsFreedom Of ThoughtMasonicFreemasonry
Author:Theodore Roosevelt
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“Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape.”

PeopleMenLooksLittlesMadeLawBlackInterestJusticeSourceTenInjusticeInnocentOppressionGuiltyMotiveLook UpConsiderationBlack PeoplePeersHumiliationAccusedCourtesyLaw And JusticeLaw Breakers
Author:W. E. B. Du Bois
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“At the meeting I argued that the state had given us no alternative to violence. I said it was wrong and immoral to subject our people to armed attacks by the state without offering them some kind of alternative. I mentioned again that people on their own had taken up arms. Violence would begin whether we initiated it or not. Would it not be better to guide this violence ourselves, according to principles where we saved lives by attacking symbols of oppression, and not people? If we did not take the lead now, I said, we would soon be latecomers and followers to a movement we did not control.”

PeopleIfsKindSaidStatesGivenPrinciplesTakenViolenceSubjectsMovementArmsMeetingsGuidesSavedOppressionSymbolsAlternativesRevolutionaryLive ByFollowersOfferingImmoralAttackingLatecomers
Author:Nelson Mandela
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“Within the lesbian community I am Black, and within the Black community I am a lesbian. Any attack against Black people is a lesbian and gay issue, because I and thousands of other Black women are part of the lesbian community. Any attack against lesbians and gays is a Black issue, because thousands of lesbians and gay men are Black. There is no hierarchy of oppression.”

PeopleMenBlackCommunityIssuesGayOppressionBlack PeopleBlack WomenHierarchyGay MenBlack Community
Author:Audre Lorde
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“As long as I breathe I hope. As long as I breathe I shall fight for the future, that radiant future, in which man, strong and beautiful, will become master of the drifting stream of his history and will direct it towards the boundless horizons of beauty, joy and happiness!”

MenLongBeautifulLife IsJoyFightingEvilStrongEnjoyViolenceGenerationsMastersDirectBreatheOppressionStreamsHorizonFuture GenerationBoundlessLife HappinessRadiantDriftingJoy And HappinessLife Is Beautiful
Author:Leon Trotsky
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“Above all I ask leaders and legislators and the entire international community above all to confront the reality of those who have been displaced by force, with effective projects and new approaches in order to protect their dignity, to improve the quality of their life and to face the challenges that are emerging from modern forms of persecution, oppression and slavery.”

Has BeensRealityFacesFormOrderAsksForceCommunityChallengesQualityLeaderModernProtectProjectsApproachDignitySlaveryInternationalOppressionPersecutionRefugeeEmergingLegislatorsInternational CommunityMigrantsNew Approach
Author:Pope Francis
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“Being a victim of oppression in the United States is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother's womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.”

PeopleHumansLongDifferentMatterStatesEnoughMotherValuesHateUnitedUnited StatesGroupsAchieveRevolutionVictimOppressionRevolutionaryRebellionOppressedVersusAdoptedWombDroppingOppressorsDropping OutDifferent Values
Author:Grace Lee Boggs
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“That's how oppression works. Thousands of otherwise decent people are persuaded to go along with an unfair system because changing it seems like too much bother. The appropriate response when somebody demands a change in that unfair system is to listen, rather than turn away or yell, as a child might, that it's not your fault. Of course it isn't your fault. I'm sure you're lovely. That doesn't mean you don't have a responsibility to do something about it.”

PeopleMeanChildrenSeemsMightTurnsCoursesResponsibilityToo MuchDemandFaultsResponseLovelyOppressionBotherDecentAppropriateUnfair
Author:Laurie Penny
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