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Slavery Quotes

Browse 2495 quotes about Slavery.

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Slavery Quotes

“Slavery, you know, is nothing else than the unwilling labor of many. Therefore to get rid of slavery it is necessary that people should not wish to profit by the forced labor of others and should consider it a sin and a shame. But they go and abolish the external form of slavery and arrange so that one can no longer buy and sell slaves, and they imagine and assure themselves that slavery no longer exists, and do not see or wish to see that it does, because people still want and consider it good and right to exploit the labor of others.”

PeopleKnowsWantShouldDoeStillsFormWishSinImagineLaborShameSlaverySellsSlaveProfitExploitsUnwillingAbolish
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Freedom is not simply the circumstances that allow you to do whatever you want. Freedom is not only the opportunity to choose. Freedom is the strength of character to choose and to do what is right. With that in mind, our age is not an age of freedom, but an age of slavery. It is subtle, but it is real. The foundation of freedom is not power or choice. Freedom is upheld not by men and women in government, but by people who govern themselves.”

PeopleMenWantMindRealCharacterGovernmentAgeChoicesOpportunityFreedomCircumstancesMen And WomenFoundationSlaverySubtleStrength Of CharacterDo Whatever You Want
Author:Matthew Kelly
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“Politicians argue for abortion largely because they do not want to spend the necessary money to feed, clothe and educate more people... There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of higher order than the right to life. I do not share that view... That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside of your right to concerned.”

PeopleWantOrderViewsExistenceShareHigherPoliticianConcernedSlaverySlaveArguingAbortionPrivacyTreatmentProtestEducatePremisesRight To LifePlantationsRight To Privacy
Author:Jesse Jackson
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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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“People can say what they want, but historically, feminism in the Dominican Republic has been extremely strong. I guess the best way of saying it is that no one could have survived what we survived - whether it was first extermination and slavery, then abandonment and erasure, then the series of gunboat two-bit dictatorships, followed by the final apotheosis of dictatorships, the Trujillato. You couldn't survive it without the resistance of this kind of woman.”

PeopleWayWantFirstsKindHas BeensTwoStrongBitsFeminismSlaverySeriesFinalsBest WayResistanceRepublicDictatorshipSurvivedAbandonmentExterminationDominican RepublicApotheosisTwo Bit
Author:Junot Diaz
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“If we want to understand the actions of a man in the early 1860's, put yourself back there in his shoes. As a young man he began piloting steamboats on the Mississippi, a job he loved and wanted to do the rest of his life, he said. The Civil War ended traffic on the River and his job. He wrote about it in A History of A Campaign That Failed. He said: "I joined the Confederacy, served for two weeks, deserted, and the Confederacy fell." His attachment to the Southern ideal of slavery does not appear very sturdy.”

IfsMenWantDoeSaidTwoWarActionWantedJobsYoungWeekIdealsRiversSlaveryShoesCampaignsYoung ManCivil WarAttachmentSouthernTrafficTwo WeeksMississippiDesertedSturdySteamboats
Author:Hal Holbrook
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“You pick up very well-known books on Lincoln [and] you will find almost no reference to his long-term belief in colonization. Why? Because it doesn't fit the image of the Great Emancipator. It doesn't fit the retrospective view we want to have of Lincoln as the man who was the moralist in politics, who came into office committed to ending slavery and waited to sign this document.”

MenWantWellsLongBookBeliefTermViewsKnownHe ManFitOfficePicksSlaveryCommittedLong TermDocumentsWell KnownColonizationMoralistRetrospectiveEnding Slavery
Author:Eric Foner
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“My people couldn't have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better. And there's some songs from the 19th and 18th century that say [sings], "By and by, by and by, I will lay down, this heavy load." And I mean, so many songs that spoke of hope and understand it better by and by. Amazing songs. So that the slaves, just knowing that he, she, did not have the right legally to walk within one inch away from where the slave owner dictated, and yet the same person, wrote and sang with fervor, "If the lord wants somebody, here am I, send me." It's amazing.”

PeopleIfsWantMeanPersonsSongWalksLordKnowingCenturySlaveryLaysSlaveHeavyGet BetterOwnersSpokesInchesLoadSurvivedHaving Hope18th CenturyFervorSlave OwnersHeavy LoadsAmazing Song
Author:Maya Angelou
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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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“One person may need (or want) more leisure, another more work; one more adventure, another more security, and so on. It is this diversity that makes a country, indeed a state, a city, a church, or a family, healthy. 'One-size-fits-all,' and that size determined by the State has a name, and that name is 'slavery.'”

WantNeedsMayPersonsCountryStatesNamesChurchCitiesSecurityAdventureFitHealthyDiversitySlaverySizeDeterminedLeisureOne Size Fits All
Author:David Mamet
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“They wanted black women to conform to the gender norms set by white society. They wanted to be recognized as 'men,' as patriarchs, by other men, including white men. Yet they could not assume this position if black women were not willing to conform to prevailing sexist gender norms. Many black women who has endured white-supremacist patriarchal domination during slavery did not want to be dominated by black men after manumission.”

IfsMenWantWantedBlackWhitePositionWillingSlaveryAssumingIncludingGenderConformWhite ManNormBlack WomenDominationPrevailingSexist
Author:Bell Hooks
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“I love life and want to hold onto it. But my passion for justice for my tormented people, for their dignity and freedom, must be greater still. For of what value is a life of slavery, of humiliation and contempt for that which you hold most dear: Your identity! I will therefore not give in to the Turkish Inquisition.”

PeopleWantGivingStillsValuesPassionJusticeGreaterIdentityDignitySlaveryDearHuman RightsLove LifeContemptHumiliationMy PassionTurkishInquisitionI Love Life
Book:Writings from Prison
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“He [Stephen Douglas] is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.”

WayWantMindHumansSoulReasonLightLyingLibertyMoralInfluenceInstitutionsSlaverySlavePerpetualPreparingHuman Soul
Book:The Complete Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858
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“Have the daring to stop doing the things you really don't want to do. Can you see them? Look closely. Can you observe the many things you do because you reluctantly feel you should or must? Watch closely. Examine every action and reaction. Do you act naturally or do you act because you feel compelled? If you feel compelled, stop. Compulsion is slavery. Example: Refuse to go along with the crowd.”

IfsWantFeelsShouldMindLooksActionWatchesExampleSlaveryCrowdsRefuseReactionsDaringCompelledCompulsionAction And Reaction
Author:Vernon Howard
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“Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin... Bankers own the Earth. Take it away from them but leave them the power to create money, and, with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again... Take this great power away from them and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for then this would be a better and happier world to live in... But, if you want to continue to be a slave of the bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, then let the bankers continue to create money and control credit.”

IfsWorldWantEnoughWould BeEarthBornSinMoneyPayLibertyEconomicMinesOughtCostEconomicsSlaveryFortuneSlaveCreditDisappearPensBankingBankersBack AgainGreat PowerBe A SlaveCentral BanksIniquity
Author:Josiah Stamp
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“The question may seem embarrassing, but it can be answered in a few words. For two people to live in peace they must both want peace; if one of them insists on using force to oblige the other to work for him and serve him, then the other, if he wishes to retain his dignity as a man and not be reduced to abject slavery, will be obliged in spite of his love of peace, to resist force with adequate means.”

PeopleIfsMenWantMayMeanTwoSeemsForceWishDignitySlaverySpiteEmbarrassingHis LoveAdequateObligedFew WordsAdequate Means
Author:Errico Malatesta
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“No, this is not what a fair God would do. And why does it not say anywhere in the Bible that slavery is wrong? It only says that you should treat your slaves well. Well, I don't care if you treat them well. How is it possible that it is not immoral to own another person? Why isn't that one of the Ten Commandments? 'Thou shalt not own another person.' You want to sit here and tell me that fornication is worse than owning someone?”

IfsWantShouldWellsPersonsDoeCareTenFairsTreatsSlaverySlaveDon't CareI Don't CareCommandmentsImmoralTen Commandments
Author:Mira Sorvino
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“The majority of those who are loosely identified by the term 'liberals' are afraid to let themselves discover that what they advocate is statism. They want to keep all the advantages and effects of capitalism, while destroying the cause, and they want to establish statism without its necessary effects. They do not want to know or to admit that they are the champions of dictatorship and slavery.”

KnowsWantCausesTermEffectsCapitalismAdvantageSlaveryMajorityChampionDestroyingDictatorship
Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
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“Get rid of the bondage of body; we have become slaves to it and learnt to hug our chains and love our slavery; so much so that we long to perpetuate it, and go on with "body" "body" for ever. Do not cling to the idea of "body", do not look for a future existence in any way like this one; do not love or want the body, even of those dear to us.”

WayWantLooksLongIdeasBodyExistenceGoes OnAnd LoveSlaverySlaveDearChainsHugBondageHuman Body
Book:Complete Works
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