Oppressors Quotes

• All oppression creates a state of war.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  War, Historical, Oppression

  Simone de Beauvoir (1953). “The second sex”, Vintage

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• To hold a people in oppression you have to convince them first that they are supposed to be oppressed.

  John Henrik Clarke

  People, Firsts, Oppression

  80 Copy quote

• A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.

  Tacitus

  Men, Desire, Oppression

  45 Copy quote

• Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Interesting, Social Justice, Oppression

  46 Copy quote

• Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stands up and protests. The protest need not be merely physical-the throwing of stones and bullets-if it is mental, spiritual; if it expresses itself in silent, persistent dissatisfaction, the cost to the oppressor is terrific.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Spiritual, Needs, Cost

  189 Copy quote

• Take sides. Neutrality always serves the oppressor and never the oppressed.

  Elie Wiesel

  Neutrality, Sides, Oppressed

  8 Copy quote

• He who allows oppression shares the crime.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Perseverance, Freedom, Democracy

  41 Copy quote

• Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

  Bertrand Russell

  Inspirational, Children, Pain

  Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.3, Routledge

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• We are extricating ourselves from a system that insulted our common humanity by dividing us from one another on the basis of race and setting us against each other as oppressed and oppressor. That system committed a crime against humanity.

  Nelson Mandela

  Race, Common Humanity, Crime

  Nelson Mandela (2003). “Nelson Mandela: from freedom to the future : tributes and speeches”, Jonathan Ball Publishers

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• The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Errors, Humanity, Triumph

  James Madison, Thomas Jefferson (1835). “Resolutions of Virginia and Kentucky”, p.53

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• Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.

  Mark Twain

  Kings, Civilization, People

  Mark Twain (1940). “Mark Twain in eruption: hitherto unpublished pages about men and events”, Harper & Brothers

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• The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.

  Paulo Freire

  Community, Leader, Favors

  Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.103, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Bullies, oppressors and all men who do violence to the rights of others are guilty not only of their own crimes, but also of the corruption they bring into the hearts of their victims.

  Alessandro Manzoni

  Heart, Men, Rights

  Alessandro Manzoni (1983). “The Betrothed”, p.54, Penguin UK

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• No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

  Joseph Addison

  Political, Politics, Oppression

  Joseph Addison (1794). “Interesting Anecdotes, Memoirs, Allegories, Essays, and Poetical Fragments: Tending to Amuse the Fancy, and Inculcate Morality”, p.286

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• Silence is consent. And silence where life and liberty is at stake, where by a timely protest we could stay the destoyer's hand, and do not do so, is as criminal as giving actual aid to the oppressor, for it answers his purpose.

  Ernestine Rose

  Hands, Giving, Silence

  20 Copy quote

• I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

  Nelson Mandela

  Taken, Humanity, Long Walk To Freedom

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.158, Pan Macmillan

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• It is not possible to be truly balanced in one's views of an abuser and an abused woman. As Dr. Judith Herman explains eloquently in her masterwork Trauma and Recovery, “neutrality” actually serves the interests of the perpetrator much more than those of the victim and so is not neutral. Although an abuser prefers to have you wholeheartedly on his side, he will settle contentedly for your decision to take a middle stance. To him, that means you see the couple's problems as partly her fault and partly his fault, which means it isn't abuse.

  Lundy Bancroft

  Couple, Women, Mean

  Lundy Bancroft (2003). “Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men”, p.287, Penguin

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• You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

  Desmond Tutu

  Sides, Oppressed

  "Desmond Tutu is one of a rare breed" by Cath Elliott, www.theguardian.com. September 17, 2010.

  241 Copy quote

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• An educator in a system of oppression is either a revolutionary or an oppressor.

  Lerone Bennett, Jr.

  Revolutionary, Oppression, Educator

  42 Copy quote

• Every time I sit down to eat, I cast my lot: for mercy, against misery; for the oppressed, against the oppressor; and for compassion, against cruelty. There is a lot of suffering in the world, but how much suffering can be addressed with literally no time or effort on our part? We can just stop supporting it, by making different choices.

  Bruce Friedrich

  Compassion, Choices, Effort

  "Resolved: Eating Animals Is Indefensible" by Bruce Friedrich, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 5, 2010.

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• Racism oppresses its victims, but also binds the oppressors, who sear their consciences with more and more lies until they become prisoners of those lies. They cannot face the truth of human equality because it reveals the horror of the injustices they commit.

  Alveda King

  Lying, Racism, Faces

  29 Copy quote

• Moral power is always more dangerous to an oppressor than political force.

  Mary Brave Bird

  Political, Moral, Force

  26 Copy quote

• Beware of the words "internal security," for they are the eternal cry of the oppressor.

  Voltaire

  Cry, Internals, Eternal

  104 Copy quote

• The oppressed want at any cost to resemble the oppressors." "They call themselves ignorant and say the 'professor' is the one who has knowledge and to whom they should listen." "Almost never do they realize that they, too, 'know things' they have learned in their relations with the world.

  Paulo Freire

  Ignorant, Cost, World

  Paulo Freire (1998). “The Paulo Freire Reader”, Burns & Oates

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• Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

  Simone Weil

  Peace, Giving, Doe

  17 Copy quote