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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“Humans call animals 'dumb'... after they robbed their entire own precious world. They are intelligent beings in their own right, and thoroughly self-sufficient... if not molested by humans. Yet, after millennia of slavery by selfish/callous humans they're made to look dumb! The 'superior species' in their situations would, too, appear 'dumb'.”

IfsWorldHumansLooksMadeSelfAnimalSituationIntelligentSlaverySpeciesSelfishSuperiorsDumbSufficientAnimal RightsSelf SufficientCallous
Author:Adela Popescu
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“You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin-just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain.”

IfsKnowsWorldShouldBelieveChildrenFacesLife IsDiesChristEnemyFireHeardDyingSweetFoolGunShotsCrossesSlaveryRoundsDearIsraelChainsVainBridgesThrownPatriotNaziHonoredMartyrMosesPharaohs
Author:Ronald Reagan
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“What the working man sells is not directly his Labor, but his Laboring Power, the temporary disposal of which he makes over to the capitalist. This is so much the case that I do not know whether by the English Law, but certainly by some Continental Laws, the maximum time is fixed for which a man is allowed to sell his laboring power. If allowed to do so for any indefinite period whatever, slavery would be immediately restored. Such a sale, if it comprised his lifetime, for example, would make him at once the lifelong slave of his employer.”

IfsKnowsMenWould BeLawWorkCasesExamplePeriodsLaborSlaverySellsSlaveLifetimeFixedTemporaryCapitalistMaximumEmployersLifelongWorking ManContinentalEnglish Law
Book:German socialist philosophy
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“I've always been interested in history, but they never taught Negro history in the public schools...I don't see how a history of the United States can be written honestly without including the Negro. I didn't [paint] just as a historical thing, but because I believe these things tie up with the Negro today. We don't have a physical slavery, but an economic slavery. If these people, who were so much worse off than the people today, could conquer their slavery, we can certainly do the same thing....I am not a politician. I'm an artist, just trying to do my part to bring this thing about.”

PeopleIfsTryingBelieveStatesTodaySchoolArtistI BelieveUnitedUnited StatesWrittenEconomicTaughtPoliticianSlaveryHistoricalPaintIncludingHonestlyConquerTiesPublic SchoolEconomic Slavery
Author:Jacob Lawrence
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“Now I see why reading was illegal for black people during slavery. I discover that I think in words. The more words I know, the more things I can think about. My vocab and thoughts grow together like the stem and petals of a flower. Reading was illegal because if you limit someone's vocab, you limit their thoughts. They can't even think of freedom because they don't have the language to.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsI CanTogetherReadingLanguageGrowsBlackFlowerLimitsSlaveryIllegalBlack PeopleStemPetals
Author:M. K. Asante
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“Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law. Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general.”

IfsGivingStillsFormLawPoliticalPassionPoliticsViewsEconomyEffectsInspireTaughtMoralityConflictImportanceSlaveryPoint Of ViewOppressionTragicMonopolySanctionsExaggeratedPerversionRobberyPolitical EconomySupposition
Author:Frederic Bastiat
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“When every one is to cultivate himself into man, condemning a man to machine-like labor amounts to the same thing as slavery. If a factory-worker must tire himself to death twelve hours and more, he is cut off from becoming man. Every labor is to have the intent that the man be satisfied.... His labor is nothing taken by itself, has no object in itself, is nothing complete in itself; he labors only into another's hands, and is used (exploited) by this other.”

IfsMenHandsUsedHoursTakenCuttingObjectsHe ManAmountBecomingLaborMachinesSlaveryWorkersSatisfiedFactoriesTwelveTireCondemningFactory Workers
Author:Max Stirner
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“You point out that war is only a symptom of the whole horrid business of human behavior, and cannot be isolated. And that, even if we abolish war, we shall not abolish hate and greed. So might it have been argued about slave emancipation, that slavery was but one aspect of human disgustingness, and that to abolish it would not end the barbarity that causes it. But did the abolitionists therefore waste their breath? And do we waste ours now in protesting against war?”

IfsHumansHas BeensWarEndsWholeMightHateCausesWasteBehaviorAspectBreathsSlaverySlaveGreedIsolatedHuman BehaviorSymptomsEmancipationAbolishAbolitionistBarbarityAgainst War
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“Communism worked honestly by officials devoid of human frailties and devoted to nothing but the good of its slaves, would have certain manifest material advantages as compared with a proletarian wage-system where millions live in semi-starvation, and many millions more in permanent dread thereof. But even if it were administered thus Communism would only produce its benefits through imposing slavery.”

IfsHumansWisdomCertainPoliticsMillionsEconomyProduceMaterialsBenefitsAdvantageSlaverySlaveHonestlyCommunismPermanentOfficialsLiberalismManifestDreadDevotedStarvationImposingFrailtyHuman Frailties
Author:Hilaire Belloc
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“If a man surrenders all power of self-determination in regard to the profits, management or ownership of the place where he works, he not only loses that special prerogative which marks him off from a cow in a pasture, but what is worse, he loses all capacity for determining any work. This is the beginning of a slavery which sometimes goes by the name of security.”

IfsMenSelfSometimesWisdomPoliticsNamesLosesEconomySpecialSecurityCapacityDeterminationMarkRegardManagementSlaveryProfitSurrenderLiberalismCowsSelf DeterminationOwnershipPrerogativePasturesTime Goes By
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“I wanted to touch on how we look on each other. Good hair, light skin, you must be smart; if you're black, you're dark-skinned, you're ugly. That really happens. This is something that started with slavery, when they divided the house, and it's still a part of today's society and things that we battle with.”

IfsLooksStillsLightHappensTodayWantedHouseBlackDarkHairBattleSmartSkinsSlaveryUglyDividedBeing SmartDark SkinnedGood HairToday's Society
Author:Rapsody
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“This world is filled with many vulgar and dishonorable things that will claw and tear at your Christian purity if you allow them to. Don't let them! Seek instead the things of God. He will purify you and free you from your slavery to profane and inconsequential things.”

IfsWorldChristianThis WorldTearsSlaveryFilledPurityVulgarClawsProfaneInconsequentialDishonorable
Book:A Year with the Bible: Scriptural Wisdom for Daily Living
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“Old Testament, is really one of the most wickedest books you'll ever come across. God is an insecure, rage-filled hybrid of Bobby Knight and Suge Knight. He's got these anger issues that you can't believe. He's like John McCain if McCain could fart hail. He's pro-slavery, he's pro-polygamy, he's homophobic, he'll kill you for masturbating.”

IfsBelieveBookIssuesSlaveryFilledRageTestamentInsecureKnightsOld TestamentMccainHailFartPolygamyHybridHomophobicPro SlaveryAnger Issues
Author:Bill Maher
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“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.”

PeopleIfsNeedsStillsRunningEvilOpinionDemocracyRightsMediaConscienceVoteAccountsSlaveryMajorityNotionPopulationMinoritiesRequirementsPublic OpinionManipulateFlawedDemocracies HaveEvil PeopleMajority RuleMajority Vote
Author:Howard Zinn
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“Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched across the pages of history the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence, we were here. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.”

IfsFacesWinningNationsFailingDemandEternalPagesIndependenceSlaverySacredGods WillCrueltyOppositionPensHeritageDeclarationPilgrimDeclaration Of IndependenceMajesticWe Will WinPlymouth
Book:The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:
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“Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods. It would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to tax) but "to bind us in all cases whatsoever," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious, for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.”

IfsKnowsShouldSoulWould BeEarthHeavenCasesKnow HowStrangeExpressionTaxesArmySlaveryBoundsTyrannyBritainGoodsArticlesUnlimitedCelestial
Book:The Political Writings of Thomas Paine: To which is Prefixed a Brief Sketch of the Author's Life
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“We are a free people; and now you have planted in our country the title deeds of our future slavery. You are neither god nor demon; who are you, then, to make slaves? Orou! You understand the language of these men, tell us all, as you have told me, what they have written on this sheet of metal: This country is ours. This country yours? And why? Because you have walked thereon? If a Tahitian landed one day on your shores, and scratched on one of your rocks or on the bark of your trees: This country belongs to the people of Tahiti - what would you think?”

PeopleIfsThinkingMenCountryLanguageWrittenTreeAtheismRocksOne DaySlaverySlaveDeedsPositive AtheismOur CountryTitlesDemonShoreOur FutureMetalsSheetsBarkTahiti
Author:Denis Diderot
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“There is great fear expressed on all sides lest this war shall be made a war for the negro. I am willing that it shall be. It is awar to found an empire on the negro in slavery, and shame on us if we do not make it a war to establish the negro in freedom--against whom the whole nation, North and South, East and West, in one mighty conspiracy, has combined from the beginning.”

IfsMadeWarWholeFoundNationsSidesWillingShameSlaveryWestSouthEastEmpiresConspiracyEast And WestNorth And South
Author:Susan B. Anthony
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“... if you're poor and ignorant, with a child, you're a slave. Meaning that you're never going to get out of it. These women are in bondage to a kind of slavery that the 13th Amendment just didn't deal with. The old master provided food, clothing and health care to the slaves because he wanted them to get up and go to work in the morning. And so on welfare: you get food, clothing and shelter--you get survival, but you can't really do anything else. You can't control your life.”

IfsKindChildrenCareWantedPoorDealsMorningMastersSurvivalSlaverySlaveIgnorantGet UpHealth CareWelfareClothingsAmendmentsShelterBondage
Author:Joycelyn Elders
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“If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and completions of hisown comfort,--who would not so much as part with his ice- cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think I must not hesitate to satisfy that man that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper by placing the negro nation on a fair footing than by robbing them.”

IfsThinkingMenMatterLastsNationsRaceComfortFairsSlaveryIceRuinsCreamIce CreamCheaperCompletionDecorationRobbingVanilla
Book:The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“One of the duties which devolve upon women in the present interesting crisis, is to prepare themselves for more extensive usefulness, by making use of those religious and literary privileges and advantages that are within their reach, if they will only stretch out their hands and possess them.”

IfsUseHandsReligiousInterestingDutyAdvantageCrisisSlaveryPrivilegeUsefulness
Book:Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker
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“I envy neither the heart nor the head of any legislator who has been born to an inheritance of privileges, who has behind him agesof education, dominion, civilization, and Christianity, if he stands opposed to the passage of a national education bill, whose purpose is to secure education to the children of those who were born under the shadow of institutions which made it a crime to read.”

IfsHeartChildrenHas BeensMadePurposeReadingBornBehindsChristianityCrimeCivilizationShadowInstitutionsSlaveryBillsPrivilegeEnvySecureMade ItPassagesInheritanceDominionLegislators
Author:Frances Harper
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“It is said that the Negro is ignorant. But why is he ignorant? It comes with ill grace from a man who has put out my eyes to makea parade of my blindness,--to reproach me for my poverty when he has wronged me of my money.... If he is poor, what has become of the money he has been earning for the last two hundred and fifty years? Years ago it was said cotton fights and cotton conquers for American slavery. The Negro helped build up that great cotton power in the South, and in the North his sigh was in the whir of its machinery, and his blood and tears upon the warp and woof of its manufactures.”

IfsMenYearsHas BeensSaidTwoEyeLastsFightingPoorPovertyGraceBloodTearsRacismHundredYears AgoSlaverySouthIllIgnorantConquerFiftyEarningBlindnessSighMachineryParadesCottonReproachWrongedWarpAmerican Slavery
Author:Frances Harper
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“Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation. Twenty millions in the temperate zone, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, full of vigor, industry, inventive genius, educated, and moral; increasing by immigration rapidly, and, above all, free--all free--will form a confederacy of twenty States scarcely inferior in real power to the unfortunate Union of thirty-three States which we had on the first of November.”

IfsFirstsWarRealStatesHandsFormThreePoliticsNationsMoralMillionsGoes OnIndustryGeniusTwentiesSlaveryUnionsImmigrationEducatedCompromiseThirtyCivil WarGloriousZoneFree WillUnfortunateInferiorsNovemberStretchingPacificVigorReal PowerFree State
Book:Conspicuous Gallantry: Civil War Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes (Abridged)
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