Quotes About Oppression

She led a submerged life, a life catacombed by poverty and ignorance

When giants fought, ants were crushed.

Might as well go out flipping the bird to the powers that be killing us.

The only way to stop a rebellion is to crush it with blood and fire, and to wound them so they'll never dare to raise a hand again.

The problem with ruling by fear is that eventually, when the fear fades, fury replaces it.

We are only the most visible casualties of a silent war, and as they lock collars on our necks and tell us it is for our protection, we know that worse will come.

His divine wisdom can kiss my common arse. We blind and hobble half of the world through such ignorance, and I will not have it. Women shall study at the Serapeum as they might be inclined. Let him execute me if he wishes, but I have seen enough of minds wasted in this world. I have a daughter. My daughter will learn.

Because revolution rarely comes from those in charge.

Some say that women should not read, for they may be led astray into impurity, as if our women are not fit guardians of their own worthiness.

Taking someone's will, someone's freedom...it kills the heart, and then the soul.

But the only thing more certain than death and taxes is bullies.

Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with.

I feel like I'm witnessing the systematic destruction of a people's ability to survive.... Sometimes I sit down to dinner with people and I realize there is a massive military machine surrounding us, trying to kill the people I'm having dinner with

The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering, and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it's important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel, as a state, and Jewish people. That's kind of a no-brainer, but there is very strong pressure to conflate the two.

A woman's body, said the world, was a prison in which her mind must wither.

Marrano" was the Spanish word for "pig." Pretty much sums up Catholic Spain's view of Jews.)

How readily the rules of female behavior—gentleness, acquiescence, ever-mindfulness—turned to shackles.

Poverty smothers our dreams even before we have finished dreaming them.

They'll use a pair of clubs to beat the spades

Among the nations of Earth in all its history, ours is one of the precious few that has not brought forth its Hitler, its Stalin, its Pol Pot, its Mao Tse-tung, its Vlad the Impaler, the one who is never satisfied to have every knee bend to him but wants also to be the architect of a new world by destroying the existing one.

Over the centuries, the Miriams and the Bernies and the millions like them were the fonts of free and civil societies, which was why the likes of D. J. Michael so despised them and yearned to oppress them; freedom and civility were barriers to absolute power and to the adoration that the powerful could command of others.

the darkest desire of humankind—to hold absolute power, to control, to command obedience, to eliminate all voices of disagreement and dissent—had found its full expression.

Laugh at tyrants and the tragedy they inflict. Such men welcome our tears as evidence of subservience, but our laughter condemns them to ignominy.

Arinwald's favorite film has become the version of 1984 starring John Hurt and Richard Burton; the moment that most satisfies in that production is when Burton says to Hurt, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.