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Peasants Quotes

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Peasants Quotes

“All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.”

MenMadeEarthPoorPovertyEqualDearDeceivingPlatoPeasantsDear GodWorkmenEquality Of ManDeceived Us
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study
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“Chekhov said: let's put God - and all these grand progressive ideas - to one side. Let's begin with man; let's be kind and attentive to the individual man - whether he's a bishop, a peasant, an industrial magnate, a convict in the Sakhalin Islands, or a waiter in a restaurant. Let's begin with respect, compassion, and love for the individual - or we'll never get anywhere.”

MenKindSaidIdeasIndividualSidesCompassionAnd LoveIslandsRestaurantsProgressiveBe KindPeasantsBishopsWaiterConvictsChekhov
Book:Life And Fate (Vintage Classic Russians Series)
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“The anarch is oriented to facts, not ideas. He fights alone, as a free man, and would never dream of sacrificing himself to having one inadequacy supplant another and a new regime triumph over the old one. In this sense, he is closer to the philistine; the baker whose chief concern is to bake good bread; the peasant, who works his plow while armies march across his fields.”

MenIdeasFactsDreamFightingSacrificeFieldsConcernArmyBreadChiefsTriumphMarchRegimesPeasantsFree ManInadequacyBakersPhilistines
Author:Ernst Junger
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“It was the Faith which gradually and indirectly transformed the slave into the serf, and the serf into the free peasant... You will not be able to set up in a pagan or an heretical or a wholly indifferent society the institutions characteristic of economic freedom; you will not be able to curb competition which alone would be sufficient to destroy such freedom, nor pursue permanently and consecutively any one part of the program. The thing must be done as a whole, and it can be done as a whole only by the ambient influence of Catholicism.”

DoneWholeWould BeAbleInfluenceEconomicProgramInstitutionsCompetitionSlavePursueSufficientCharacteristicsCatholicismTransformedIndifferentPeasantsPaganCurbEconomic FreedomSerfsAmbient
Author:Hilaire Belloc
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“Ask yourself why totalitarian dictatorships find it necessary to pour money and effort into propaganda for their own helpless, chained, gagged slaves, who have no means of protest or defense. The answer is that even the humblest peasant or the lowest savage would rise in blind rebellion, were he to realize that he is being immolated, not to some incomprehensible noble purpose, but to plain, naked human evil.”

HumansMeanPurposeEvilAsksRealizingAnswersEffortBlindSlaveDefenseNobleTyrannyNakedOppressionPropagandaNovelistsProtestRebellionTyrantsDictatorshipSavagesHelplessLowestTotalitarianismPeasantsFamous WomenChained
Book:Ayn Rand Reader
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“The university should color itself black and color itself mulatto — not just as regards students but also professors. Today the people stand at the door of the university, and it is the university that must be flexible. It must color itself black, mulatto, worker, peasant, or else be left without doors. And then the people will tear it apart and paint it with the colors they see fit.”

PeopleShouldTodayLeftBlackDoorsStudentsTearsColorFitRegardPaintWorkersUniversityProfessorsFlexiblePeasantsMulattoes
Author:Che Guevara
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“About 1911 I had the idea of making for my son, who had just been born, a blanket composed of bits of fabric like those I had seen in the houses of Russian peasants. When it was finished, the arrangement of the pieces of material seemed to me to evoke cubist conceptions and we then tried to apply the same process to other objects and paintings.”

IdeasHouseBitsProcessBornPiecesObjectsPaintingSonMaterialsFinishedMy SonConceptionFabricArrangementsPeasantsBlanketEvoke
Author:Sonia Delaunay
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“N. S. Khrushchev established his supremacy in the U.S.S.R. after post-Stalinist alarums and excursions (1958-64). This admirable rough diamond, a believer in reform and peaceful coexistence, who incidentally emptied Stalin's concentration camps, dominated the international scene in the next few years. He was also perhaps the only peasant boy ever to rule a major state”

YearsStatesNextBoysSceneMajorsInternationalBelieverPeacefulReformPostsConcentrationRoughCampsDiamondPeasantsAdmirableSupremacyCoexistenceConcentration CampPeaceful CoexistenceExcursions
Author:Eric Hobsbawm
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“Not until the beginning of the 20th century did Europe's urban populations finally become self-sustaining: before then, constant immigration of healthy peasants from the countryside was necessary to make up for the constant deaths of city dwellers from crowd diseases.”

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Book:Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
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“The whole point of anti-Semitism has been to create a vulnerable buffer group that can be bribed with some privileges into managing the exploitation of others, and then, when social pressure builds, be blamed and scapegoated, distracting those at the bottom from the crimes of those at the top. Peasants who go on pogrom against their Jewish neighbors won't make it to the nobleman's palace to burn him out and seize the fields. This was the role of Jews in Europe. This has been the role of Jews in the United States, and this is the role of Jews in the Middle East.”

Has BeensStatesWholeSocialUnitedRolesUnited StatesGroupsMiddleCrimeFieldsGoes OnEuropePressureBottomPrivilegeJewEastNeighborVulnerableMiddle EastExploitationPalacesPeasantsAnti SemitismSocial PressureNoblemen
Author:Aurora Levins Morales
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“Sycamore trees were held to be sacred in ancient Egypt and are the first trees represented in ancient art. The sycamore, also, was sacred. Peasants gather around them in rituals. In the Land of the Dead there was a sycamore in whose branches the goddess Hathor lived; she leaned out of it giving sustenance and water to deceased souls. In Memphis, Hathor's epithet was Lady of the Sycamore.”

LifeGivingFirstsArtSoulWaterTreeLandSacredAncientBranchesRitualGoddessEgyptPeasantsSustenanceAncient EgyptDeceasedMemphisEpithetDead TreesAncient Art
Author:Larry Gates
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“If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it. The U.S. Army still has to learn that. The British understand it. Patton understood it. I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.”

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Author:Bill Mauldin
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“When I reflect that one man, armed only with his own physical and moral resources, was able to cause this land of Canaan to spring from the wasteland, I am convinced that in spite of everything, humanity is admirable. But when I compute the unfailing greatness of spirit and the tenacity of benevolence that it must have taken to achieve this result, I am taken with an immense respect for that old and unlearned peasant who was able to complete a work worthy of God.”

MenAbleSpiritHumanityCausesResultsMoralTakenTreeLandAchieveGreatnessSpringResourcesWorthyConvincedSpiteOne ManImmensePeasantsTenacityBenevolenceAdmirableInterdependenceWasteland
Author:Jean Giono
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“As to whether Marcos is gay: Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.”

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Author:Subcomandante Marcos
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“Lately I was near the beehives and some of the bees flew onto my face. I wanted to raise my hand, and brush them off. 'No,' said a peasant to me, 'do not be afraid, and do not touch them. They will not sting you at all, if you touch them they will bite you.' I trusted him; not one bit me. Trust me; do not fear these temptations. Do not touch them; they will not hurt you.”

IfsSaidHandsWantedFacesBitsHurtRaisesTemptationBitesBeesTrustedBrushesWillpowerTrust MePeasantsFlewDo Not FearBeehives
Book:Thy Will be Done: Letters to Persons in the World
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“If my relation to each and every peasant in Cambodia is indeed exactly what the principles of morality would demand it to be, it's a miraculous coincidence, because it takes a lot of effort to behave correctly in regard to my friends, and from one end of the year to another I never give those peasants a single thought.”

IfsGivingYearsEndsEffortPrinciplesMoralityDemandMy FriendsRelationRegardBehaveCoincidenceMiraculousPeasantsCambodia
Book:Aunt Dan and Lemon: A Play
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“The simple and terrifying reality, forbidden from discussion in America, was that despite spending $600 billion a year on the military, despite having the best fighting force the world had ever known, they were getting their asses kicked by illiterate peasants who made bombs out of manure and wood.”

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Book:The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
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“The wealth of society is created by the workers, peasants and working intellectuals. If they take their destiny into their own hands, follow a Marxist-Leninist line and take an active attitude in solving problems instead of evading them, there will be no difficulty in the world which they cannot overcome.”

IfsWorldProblemHandsLinesWealthAttitudeDestinyStruggleOvercomingDifficultyWorkersActiveProblem SolvingSelf RelianceReliancePeasantsMarxist
Book:Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung
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