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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“According to the classic liberal-arts ideal, learning promises liberation, but it is not liberation from demanding moral ideals and social norms, or liberation to act on our desires-it is, rather, liberation from slavery to those desires, from slavery to self.”

ArtSelfDesireSocialMoralPromiseIdealsSlaveryLiberationClassicNormSocial NormsLiberal Arts
Book:Conscience and Its Enemies: Confronting the Dogmas of Liberal Secularism
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“Sovereigns always see with pleasure a taste for the arts of amusement and superfluity, which do not result in the exportation of bullion, increase among their subjects. They very well know that, besides nourishing that littleness of mind which is proper to slavery, the increase of artificial wants only binds so many more chains upon the people.”

PeopleKnowsWantMindWellsArtPleasureResultsSubjectsTasteIncreaseSlaveryChainsArtificialAmusement
Book:The Social Contract
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“The process of creating art allows me to learn about the subject I'm illustrating. So, if I want to learn more about plantation life and slavery, I try to find clients that will give me an opportunity to work on projects that will visualize those experiences of the enslaved African and people of color. I get to learn about my roots, and my artwork allows the reader into that world by creating images that are accessible.”

PeopleIfsWorldWantGivingTryingArtOpportunityProcessSubjectsColorReaderProjectsCreatingRootsGive MeSlaveryClientsArtworkPlantationsCreating ArtIllustrating
Author:Jerry Pinkney
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“O neglectful Nature, wherefore art thou thus partial, becoming to some of thy children a tender and benignant mother, to others a most cruel and ruthless stepmother? I see thy children given into slavery to others without ever receiving any benefit, and in lieu of any reward for the services they have done for them they are repaid by the severest punishments.”

ChildrenArtDoneMotherGivenNatureBecomingBenefitsSlaveryRewardsMotherhoodPunishmentReceivingRuthlessStepmothers
Book:Note Books: Arranged and Rendered Into English, with Introd
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“Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.”

MenWayArtHelpingShowsLyingValuesChoicesForceUnderstandingLevelsConsciousnessOur LivesPerspectiveTypeHabitArt IsMachinesSlaveryTyrannyCustomsIndividualismImmenseDisturbingReductionMonotonyNew Perspective
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“The Door of No Return - real and metaphoric as some places are, mythic to those of us who are scattered in the Americas today. To have one’s belonging lodged in a metaphor is voluptuous intrigue; to inhabit a trope; to be a kind of fiction. To live in the Black Diaspora I think is to live in a fiction - a creation of empires, and also self-creation. It is to be being living inside and outside herself. It is to apprehend the the sign one makes yet to be unable to escape it except in radiant moments of ordinariness made like art. To be a fiction in search of its most resonant metaphor then is even more intriguing.”

ArtFictionSlaveryDiasporaBlack Diaspora
Book:A Map to the Door of No Return
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“Jimmy said, "We survived slavery. Think about that. Not because we were strong. The American Indians were strong, and they were on their own land. But they have not survived genocide. You know how we survived?" I said nothing. "We put surviving into our poems and into our songs. We put it into our folk tales. We danced surviving in Congo Square in New Orleans and put it in our pots when we cooked pinto beans. We wore surviving on our backs when we clothed ourselves in the colors of the rainbow. We were pulled down so low we could hardly lift our eyes, so we knew, if we wanted to survive, we had better lift our own spirits. So we laughed whenever we got the chance.”

ArtHumorSurvivalSlaveryGenocideAfrican AmericansBlacksNative AmericansJames Baldwin
Book:A Song Flung Up to Heaven
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“If you’re looking for fine art or literature, you might want to read some stuff written by the Greeks. Because to create true fine art, slaves are a necessity. That’s how the ancient Greeks felt, with slaves working the fields, cooking their meals, rowing their ships, all the while their citizens, under the Mediterranean Sun, indulged in poetry writing and grappled with mathematics. That was their idea of fine art.”

ArtPoetryMathematicsSlaveryGreek Literature
Book:Hear the Wind Sing
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