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Oppression Quotes

Browse 1520 quotes about Oppression.

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Oppression Quotes

“The ruthless economic exploitation and political oppression of the peasants by the landlord class forced them into numerous uprisings against its rule.... It was the class struggles of the peasants, the peasant uprisings and peasant wars that constituted the real motive force of historical development in Chinese feudal society.”

WarRealPoliticalForceClassStruggleEconomicDevelopmentHistoricalOppressionChineseMotiveExploitationRuthlessPeasantsUprisingClass StruggleLandlordPolitical OppressionClasses Of Society
Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works
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“That this privilege of giving or of withholding our monies is an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, which if left altogether without control may be exercised to our great oppression; and all history shews how efficacious is its intercession for redress of grievances and re-establishment of rights, and how improvident would be the surrender of so powerful a mediator”

IfsGivingMayImportantWould BeLeftPresidentPowerfulRightsPrivilegeSurrenderOppressionBarriersEstablishmentExertionGrievanceIntercessionPrerogativeWithholdingRedressMediators
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“You know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression. There comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.”

PeopleKnowsLeftInspiringFeetDespairMy FriendsStandingTiredOppressionIronSunlightHumiliationAbyssChillJulyNovemberThere Comes A TimePiercingsNaggingBleaknessAlpine
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“The severest trial of oppression is the constant outrage which one suffers at the thought of the oppressor. What Jesus discovered was how to avoid the inner devastations. His technique was to practice the opposite emotion... a man may not get his freedom or possessions back, but he's less miserable. It's a difficult lesson.”

MenMaySufferingJesusDifficultEmotionPracticeLessonsOppositesConstantPossessionTechniqueTrialsOppressionMiserableOutrageOppressorsDevastation
Author:B. F. Skinner
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“My idea of philosophy is that if it is not relevant to human problems, if it does not tell us how we can go about eradicating some of the misery in this world, then it is not worth the name of philosophy. I think Socrates made a very profound statement when he asserted that the raison d'etre of philosophy is to teach us proper living. In this day and age 'proper living' means liberation from the urgent problems of poverty, economic necessity and indoctrination, mental oppression.”

IfsThinkingWorldHumansMeanDoeMadeIdeasPhilosophyProblemAgeNamesPovertyTeachEconomicThis WorldMiseryProfoundStatementsOppressionLiberationThis DayRelevantUrgentIndoctrinationHuman ProblemsRaison D'etre
Author:Angela Davis
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“One has personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.”

FeelsYearsWarSeemsYouthInvolvedShadowForgottenCaughtFollowingOppressionHideousClose Friends
Book:The Fellowship of the Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings
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“Essential to the attainment of these national goals is the moral imperative of ensuring social justice and respect for human dignity. The great biblical tradition enjoins on all peoples the duty to hear the voice of the poor. It bids us to break the bonds of injustice and oppression which give rise to glaring, and indeed, scandalous social inequalities. Reforming the social structures which perpetuate poverty and the exclusion of the poor first requires a conversion of mind and heart.”

GivingMindFirstsHumansHeartSocialGoalVoiceJusticePoorMoralPovertyBreakDutyEssentialsTraditionDignitySocial JusticeStructureInjusticeConversionOppressionInequalityBiblicalHeart And MindImperativesAttainmentExclusionHuman DignityScandalousSocial StructureInjustice And OppressionSocial InequalityGreat Biblical
Author:Pope Francis
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“Giving primacy to God means having the courage to say ‘no’ to evil, ‘no’ to violence, ‘no’ to oppression, to live a life in service of others and which fosters lawfulness and the common good. When a person discovers God, the true treasure, he abandons a selfish lifestyle and seeks to share with others the charity which comes from God. He who becomes a friend of God, loves his brothers and sisters, commits himself to safeguarding their life and their health, and also to respecting the environment and nature.”

GivingMeanPersonsEvilCommonEnvironmentViolenceShareBrotherCharitySelfishLifestyleTreasureCommitOppressionGod LoveAbandonBrothers And SistersCommon GoodPrimacySafeguardingLawfulness
Author:Pope Francis
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“The reactionary suicide is ‘wise,’ and the revolutionary suicide is a ‘fool,’ a fool for the revolution in the way Paul meant when he spoke of being a ‘fool for Christ,’ That foolishness can move mountains of oppression; it is our great leap and our commitment to the dead and the unborn.”

WayMovingChristWiseRevolutionFoolMountainCommitmentSuicideOppressionRevolutionarySpokesLeapFoolishnessUnbornReactionariesMove Mountains
Book:Revolutionary Suicide: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)
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“In its essence, Martin Luther King Jr.'s ‘I Have a Dream' speech is one citizen's soul-searing plea with his countrymen––Whites and Blacks––to recognize that racial disparities fueled by unwarranted bigotry were crippling America's ability to shine as a true beacon of democracy in a world filled with people groping their way through suffocating shadows of political turmoil, economic oppression, military mayhem, starvation, and disease.”

PeopleWorldWaySoulDreamAmericaPoliticalAbilityDemocracyEconomicMilitaryKingsCitizensSpeechDiseaseShadowEssenceFilledShiningOppressionBigotryLutherStarvationTurmoilCountrymenBeaconsDisparityMayhemSuffocatingI Have A Dream SpeechPolitical Turmoil
Author:Aberjhani
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“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. [...] The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. [...] To accept injustice or segregation passively is to say to the oppressor that his actions are morally right.”

PeopleGivingActionBlackAcceptingGiving UpConscienceInjusticeOppressionWornOppressedSegregationBlack HistoryExhaustionOppressorsSlumberYoke
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“We were happy a hundred years ago. We knew that there were exploiters and exploited, wealthy and poor, and we had a perfect idea of how to get rid of injustice; we would expropriate the owners and turn the wealth over to the common good. We expropriated the owners and we created one of the most monstrous and oppressive social systems in world history. And we keep repeating that in principle everything was all right, only some unfortunate accidents slipped in and slightly spoiled the good idea. Now let us start afresh.”

WorldYearsIdeasWarPoliticalTurnsSocialWealthPerfectPoorCommonPrinciplesRichColdHundredYears AgoSocial JusticeInjusticeAccidentsSocialismOppressionOwnersWealthyGood IdeasExploitationUnfortunateCold WarWorld HistorySpoilMonstrousSpoiledCommon GoodFresh StartSocial SystemsPolitical Ideology
Author:Leszek Kolakowski
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“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”

HumansBeliefPeaceJusticeCourageSocial JusticeInjusticeOppressionMaking A DifferenceDiverseVolunteerHuman HistoryRipplePeace And JusticeBeing At PeacePeace JusticeActs Of CourageSocial InjusticeJustice And InjusticeInjustice And OppressionVolunteer AppreciationVolunteers Making A DifferenceInspiring VolunteerHope CourageInjustice In The WorldActs Of HeroismHeroic Acts
Book:An Honorable profession
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“For many Washington liberals, terrorism was not the instrument of political fanatics and evil men, but was the product of social conditions - poverty, racism and oppression - for which the Western democracies, including Israel were always ultimately to blame.”

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Book:How to beat the Democrats, and other subversive ideas
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“By habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school and college, we are coming up. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up-often through oppression, unjust discrimination and prejudice-but through them all we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence, and property, there is no power on earth than can permanently stay our progress.”

WaySchoolEarthEconomyProgressCollegeHabitPrejudicePropertyDiscriminationOppressionUnjustThriftCrawlingBursting
Book:An Autobiography - The Story of My Life and Work
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“In a democracy the majority of citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority...and that oppression of the majority will extend to far great number, and will be carried on with much greater fury, than can almost ever be apprehended from the dominion of a single sceptre. Under a cruel prince they have the plaudits of the people to animate their generous constancy under their sufferings; but those who are subjected to wrong under multitudes are deprived of all external consolation: they seem deserted by mankind, overpowered by a conspiracy of their whole species.”

PeopleWholeSeemsSufferingNumbersDemocracyGreaterMankindCitizensExerciseCapableMajoritySpeciesOppressionGenerousMinoritiesConspiracyMultitudesConsolationDeprivedFuryDominionConstancyDeserted
Author:Edmund Burke
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