Best slavery & democracy Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Frederick Douglas's agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a better democracy. And it's spilt over for women's rights; it's split over for worker's rights and so forth.”

People America Black Democracy Rights Slavery Workers Agendas Black People Splits Womens Rights Frederick Douglas

Author:Cornel West

“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.”

“Money originated with royalty and slavery, it has nothing to do with democracy or the struggle of the empoverished enslaved majority.”

Struggle Democracy Slavery Majority Royalty

Author:Aristotle

“Civil rights, as we may remember, are reducible to three primary heads; the right of personal security; the right of personal liberty; and the right of private property. In a state of slavery, the two last are wholly abolished, the person of the slave being at the absolute disposal of his master; and property, what he is incapable, in that state, either of acquiring, or holding, in his own use. Hence, it will appear how perfectly irreconcilable a state of slavery is to the principles of a democracy, which form the basis and foundation of our government.”

Source: A Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition of it in the State of Virginia

“Democracy turns upon and devours itself. Universal suffrage, in theory the palladium of our liberties, becomes the assurance of our slavery. And that slavery will grow more and more abject and ignoble as the differential birth rate, the deliberate encouragement of mendicancy and the failure of popular education produce a larger and larger mass of prehensile half-wits, and so make the demagogues more and more secure.”

“There was much in such a society that was primitive and insecure and it certainly could never measure up to the demands of the present epoch. But in such a society are contained the seeds of revolutionary democracy in which none will be held in slavery.”

Democracy Demand Slavery Seeds Revolutionary Primitive Insecure Epoch

Book:I have done my duty to my people and to South Africa: statement from the dock, 7 November 1962

Source: I have done my duty to my people and to South Africa: statement from the dock, 7 November 1962

“Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to what is called prosperity under despots, as freedom is to slavery.”

Poverty Democracy Slavery Prosperity Despots

Author:Democritus

“I suspect, too, that the modern debates represent the effort of candidates with widely-varying constituencies and special interests to please to tip the hat as quickly as possible to as many of the constituencies and interests as possible. That leaves no time for big-picture issues. Contrast this with Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, where the subject was only ever slavery, and the discussion went right to the bedrock of what a democracy is all about.”

Interest Effort Democracy Modern Special Slavery Debate Discussion Contrast

Author:Allen C. Guelzo

“I think what is being pointed out by African-Americans is that from slavery forward they have been living in a supposed democracy which treats them as less than other citizens, less than whites in the society. And I think that pointing out that there are structures of discrimination in the society, deeply rooted racist structures, that segregate housing, that send black children to ill-equipped schools, that discriminate in the workplace - these are truths about our society that must be faced.”

Thinking Children School Black Democracy Slavery Discrimination Racist Workplace Pointing

Author:Joan Wallach Scott

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”

“If no one had ever challenged religious authority, there’d be no democracy, no public schools, women’s rights, improvements to science and medicine, evolution of slavery and no laws against child abuse or spousal abuse. I was afraid to challenge my religious beliefs because that was the basis of creation—mine anyway. I was afraid to question the Bible or anything in it, and when I did, that’s when I became involved with PFLAG and realized that my son was a perfectly normal human being and there was nothing for God to heal because Bobby was perfect just the way he was.”

“Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.”

Ifs Stills Passion Left Community Natural Views Democracy Regret Taste Slavery Democratic Equality Cherish Invincible Deprivation Ardent Insatiable Incessant

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American.”

Source: Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry

“The Emancipation Proclamation...can remind us in 2013 of all the mistakes we never want to commit again but it can also motivate us to fulfill to an ever greater degree the definitive freedom-sustaining and life-enhancing principles of democracy in living action.”

Want Life Action Freedom Mistake Principles Democracy Greater Degrees Slavery Commit Emancipation Sustaining Proclamation Emancipation Proclamation

Author:Aberjhani

“Since outright slavery has been discredited, "democracy" is the only remaining rationale for state compulsion that most people will accept.”

People Has Beens States Liberty Accepting Democracy Slavery Libertarian Libertarianism Compulsion Rationale

Author:Joseph Sobran

“As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can't have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.”

Way Philosophy Together Form Political Politics Democracy Economics Slavery Democrat Socialism Socialist

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“The struggle to avert catastrophic climate change is bigger than all the other struggles, whether it is slavery, democracy struggles, the woman's right to vote, and so on I would argue that if what is at stake is securing life as we know it, then there can be no bigger struggle that we face.”

Ifs Knows Faces Struggle Democracy Vote Bigger Slavery Climate Climate Change Arguing Stakes Right To Vote Avert Others Struggles

Author:Kumi Naidoo

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”

Form Political Politics Liberty Democracy Slavery Extremes Tyranny Arise Dictatorship Dictator Plato Democracies Have Aggravated

Author:Plato

“I have ever been opposed to banks, - opposed to internal improvements by the general government, - opposed to distribution of public lands among the states, - opposed to taking the power from the hands of the people, - opposed to special monopolies, - opposed to a protective tariff, - opposed to a latitudinal construction of the constitution, - opposed to slavery agitation and disunion. This is my democracy. Point to a single act of my public career not in keeping with these principles.”

“... As long as you continue to tar social democracy with all the crimes of communism, I feel equally entitled to tar the free market with the crimes of slavery, segregation, colonialism and genocide; piss me off and I'll add fascism and the Nazis.”

Feels Long Social Democracy Crime Slavery Add Libertarian Communism Genocide Fascism Colonialism Entitled Nazi Free Market Segregation Social Democracy

Author:Greg Erwin

“Is America truly a democracy? Has America ever been a democracy with the institution of slavery?”

America Democracy Institutions Slavery Democracies Have

Author:Tatyana Ali

“Democracy is not just freedom to criticize the government or head of state, or to hold parliamentary elections. True democracy obtains only when the people - women, men, young people, children - have the ability to change the system of industrial capitalism that has oppressed them since the earliest days of slavery: a system based on class division, patriarchy, and military might, a hierarchical system that subjugates people merely because they are born poor, or female, or dark-skinned.”

“The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States.”

States Government Party Democracy Slavery South Republic Sovereign Confederate Anti Slavery

Author:Laurence M. Keitt

“We've never fully addressed the legacy of slavery. Never.... For many Americans who grew up with no conversation, nothing in the cultural landscape, this is new. It's just we're now getting to a full account of this history. It's not ideological. It's not intended to be disruptive. I'm not interested in talking about these things because I want to punish America. I want to liberate us. I actually think there's something that feels more like the thriving democracy that we seek waiting for us. We can't get there if we don't have the courage to be honest about the things that have held us back.”

America United States Courage Democracy Slavery United States Of America African Americans Blacks Us

Author:Bryan Stevenson

“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy. In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers... Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed? The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”

Government Politics Community Wealth Freedom Money Economy Democracy Slavery Commonwealth Markets

Book:The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

Source: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

“Liberty means refusing to allow some men to use the state to compel other men to serve their interests or opinion.”

“In a democracy, there will be more complaints but less crisis, in a dictatorship more silence but much more suffering.”

Source: Wealth of Words

“Democracy is probably the only discovery by mankind which mostly brought it only happiness.”

“Freedom of speech is unnecessary if the people to whom it is granted do not think for themselves.”

Freedom Education Democracy Slavery Liberation Freedom Of Speech Critical Thinking Freedom Of Thought Freedom Of Expression Freedom Of The Press Independent Thought Independent Thinking Mental Slavery Independence Of Thought Freedom Of Opinion Critical Thinker Indocrination

Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Following the 2017 attack in Charlottesville and the rise in white-nationalist terrorism over the past few years, Niya sees her work not just as an extension of her personal and intellectual commitments but also as a political commitment. She thinks Monticello has an important role in helping people reckon with who they are in relation to this country's history. "I think people come to us because they're grappling with their own identity," she said. "And Monticello in particular is a place that is so intimately connected to who we are, or who we believe we are, as Americans with freedom and democracy. Yet it's also a place of bondage, and now people are really, really grappling with that question. I think it makes our work here that much more important, that we are able, maybe, to navigate people through the conversation.”

America Freedom History Democracy Racism Slavery Terrorism American History White Supremacy Monticello

Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Source: How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

“I thought about how Juneteenth is a holiday that inspires so much celebration, born from circumstances imbued with so much tragedy. Enslavers in Texas, and across the South, attempted to keep Black people in bondage for months, and theoretically years, after their freedom had been granted. Juneteenth, then, is both a day to solemnly remember what this country has done to Black Americans and a day to celebrate all that Black Americans have overcome. It is a reminder that each day this country must consciously make a decision to move toward freedom for all of its citizens, and that this is something that must be done proactively; it will not happen on its own. The project of freedom, Juneteenth reminds us, is precarious, and we should regularly remind ourselves how many people who came before us never got to experience it, and how many people there are still waiting.”

Freedom History Democracy Slavery Celebration African Americans Blacks Emancipation African American History Juneteenth

Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Source: How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Slavery Quotes

Related topics

Slavery Quotes