Quotes About Oppression

No hay derecho a matar al enemigo sino en el caso de no poderle hacer esclavo. Luego, el derecho de hacerle esclavo no viene del derecho de matarle. Por lo tanto, es un cambio inicuo hacerle comprar a costa de su libertad una vida sobre la cual nadie tiene derecho.

Nada hay que influya más sobre mi corazón que un acto de valor hecho a propósito, en favor del débil injustamente oprimido. En

Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they are.

Dad dinero, y pronto tendréis cadenas

For in appearing to use only its rights, the Prince can very easily expand them and, on the pretext of public calm, prevent assemblies intended to restore good order; so that it takes advantage either of a silence that it prevents from being broken, or of the irregularities that it causes to be committed, and to punish those who dare speak.

La tyrannie de mon maître finit par me rendre insupportable le travail que j'aurais aimé, et par me donner des vices que j'aurais haïs

Crowds exhibit a docile respect for force, and are but slightly impressed by kindness, which for them is scarcely other than a form of weakness. Their sympathies have never been bestowed on easy-going masters, but on tyrants who vigorously oppressed them.

We are tanks and guns. We are force of history. We will crush them beneath our heels like bugs.

Sometimes the so-called law is nothing but the haves telling the have-nots to stay in their place.

I've always liked Abraham, a preacher from Hopewell Road whose name often appears in "Among the Colored People," a column in the Claiborne Gazette, but some folk complain that Abraham is a little too quick to speak his mind, not properly deferential, thinks the rules don't apply to him, doesn't know his place—he won't let his wife clean the houses of white folks

not this lords-of-the-earth crap, trying to rule the entire goddamn planet, cutting down all the forests and killing every creature you couldn't bring to heel.

Get this into your head: if violence were only a thing of the future, if exploitation and oppression never existed on earth, perhaps displays of nonviolence might relieve the conflict. But if the entire regime, even your nonviolent thoughts, is governed by a thousand-year old oppression, your passiveness serves no other purpose but to put you on the side of the oppressors.

What then did you expect when you unbound the gag that muted those black mouths? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?

Oppressed with countless little daily cares, he had waited... For an act. A free, considered act; that should pledge his whole life, and stand at the beginning of a new existence.

What would you expect to find when the muzzle that has silenced the voices of black men is removed? That they would chant your praises? Did you think that when those heads that our fathers had forcibly bowed down to the ground were raised again, you would find adoration in their eyes?

Revolutionary man must be a contingent being, unjustifiable but free, entirely immersed in the society that oppresses him, but capable of transcending this society by his effort to change it. Idealism mystifies him in that it binds him by rights and values that are already given; it conceals from him his power to devise roads of his own. But materialism also mystifies him, by depriving him of his freedom. The revolutionary philosophy must be a philosophy of transcendence.

What were you hoping, when you removed the gags that stopped up these black mouths? That they would sing your praises? Did you think, when the heads our fathers had ground into the dust had raised themselves up again, you would see adoration in their eyes? Here are black men standing, men looking at us, and I want you to feel, as I do, the shock of being seen. For the white man has, for three thousand years, enjoyed the privilege of seeing without being seen. - Black Orpheus

The more powerful the work, the more powerless the worker.

History isn't a seesaw. If you have a really bad regime on one side, the actions on the other side don't automatically become good. It doesn't work that way.

The policy of repression of ideas cannot work and never has worked.

I teach at Eastern University, which is highly committed to doing work among the poor and the oppressed peoples of the world. We have a special commitment to the city.

Big boss man, can't you hear me when I call? You ain't so big, you're just tall.

They [police] do me like that all the time! "What you work for?".

Slaves would be tyrants were the chance theirs.