Privilege Quotes - Page 37

• The privilege of a middle-class, stable, bourgeois life is that you can pretend that you are not complicated and project yourself as a solid, uncomplicated person, with refined life goals and achievements.

  Aleksandar Hemon

  Class, Goal, Achievement

  "Aleksandar Hemon: A personal history of Sarajevo". Interview with John Freeman, www.theguardian.com. February 23, 2013.

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• I found cause to wonder upon what ground the English accuse Americans of corrupting the language by introducing slang words. I think I heard more and more different kinds of slang during my few weeks' stay in London than in my whole "tenderloin" life in New York. But I suppose the English feel that the language is theirs, and that they may do with it as they please without at the same time allowing that privilege to others.

  James Weldon Johnson

  New York, Thinking, May

  James Weldon Johnson (2011). “The Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson”, p.163, Modern Library

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• I would like to make it so that education was a right, and not a privilege.

  Daphne Koller

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• In his big victory speech last night, Senator Kerry said that he wanted to defeat George Bush and the 'economy of privilege.' Then he hugged his wife, Teresa, heir to the multi-million dollar Heinz food fortune.

  Jay Leno

  Night, Wife, Victory

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• To believe that man's aggressiveness or territoriality is in the nature of the beast is to mistake some men for all men, contemporary society for all possible societies, and, by a remarkable transformation, to justify what is as what needs must be; social repression becomes a response to, rather than a cause of, human violence. Pessimism about man serves to maintain the status quo. It is a luxury for the affluent, a sop to the guilt of the politically inactive, a comfort to those who continue to enjoy the amenities of privilege.

  Leon Eisenberg

  Mistake, Believe, Men

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• All I could think of was what a privilege it was to give my life away for love's sake.

  Heidi Baker

  Thinking, Giving, Sake

  Heidi Baker (2013). “Compelled By Love: How to Change the World Through the Simple Power of Love in Action”, p.107, Charisma Media

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• The male has paid a heavy price for his masculine 'privilege' and power. He is out of touch with his emotions and his body. He is playing by the rules of the male game plan and with lemming-like purpose he is destroying himself-emotionally, psychologically and physically.

  Herb Goldberg

  Games, Males, Purpose

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• Being a scientist is a special privilege: for it brings the opportunity to be creative, the passionate quest for answers to natures most precious secrets, and the warm friendships of many valued colleagues.

  Stanley B. Prusiner

  Opportunity, Creative, Secret

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• All deductions having been made, democracy has done less harm, and more good, than any other form of government. It gave to human existence a zest and camaraderie that outweighed its pitfalls and defects. It gave to thought and science and enterprise the freedom essential to their operation and growth. It broke down the walls of privilege and class, and in each generation it raised up ability from every rank and place.

  Will Durant

  Wall, Democracies Have, Government

  Will Durant, Ariel Durant (2012). “The Lessons of History”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

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• It has been an incredible honour and privilege to serve Ontarians as their premier.

  Dalton McGuinty

  Incredibles, Honour, Has Beens

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• Same-sex marriage is not a gay privilege, it's equal rights.

  Ricky Gervais

  Sex, Gay, Rights

  Twitter post from Apr 28, 2015

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• Instead of taxing rich people, governments borrow from them, and pay them interest for the privilege.

  Doug Henwood

  Government, People, Pay

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• It's always really special to be at the New York Film Festival, and always a real privilege.

  Noah Baumbach

  New York, Real, Special

  "'Frances Ha' At New York Film Festival: Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach Bring Their 'Pop Song' To New York" by Christopher Rosen, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 1, 2012.

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• We need to stop playing Privilege or Oppression Olympics because we'll never get anywhere until we find more effective ways of talking through difference. We should be able to say, “This is my truth,” and have that truth stand without a hundred clamoring voices shouting, giving the impression that multiple truths cannot coexist.

  Roxane Gay

  Talking, Voice, Differences

  "Peculiar benefits" by Roxane Gay, therumpus.net. May 16, 2012.

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• The proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Office, Atheism

  Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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• One must be oneself very little of a philosopher not to feel that the finest privilege of our reason consists in not believing in anything by the impulsion of a blind and mechanical instinct, and that it is to dishonour reason to put it in bonds as the Chaldeans did. Man is born to think for himself.

  Denis Diderot

  Believe, Men, Thinking

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• If when I am libelled I take no notice, the world believes the libel. If I sue, I have to pay about one hundred pounds' costs for the privilege, and gain the smallest coin the country knows for recompense.

  Charles Bradlaugh

  Country, Believe, Atheism

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• I think that being part of privilege and never having to work a day in your life is so boring. I'm so glad of what I've achieved. I'm so glad I've achieved it as well.

  Callum Blue

  Thinking, Life Is, Boring

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• One of the privileges of doing television is the ability to evaluate my own performance and try to improve upon it.

  Zooey Deschanel

  Trying, Television, Ability

  "Zooey Deschanel Talks NEW GIRL Season 2, a Possible Crossover Episode with THE MINDY PROJECT, Voicing a Character on THE SIMPSONS and More". Interview with Christina Radish, collider.com. September 26, 2012.

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• We have to be despised by somebody whom we regard as above us, or we are not happy; we have to have somebody to worship and envy,or we cannot be content. In America we manifest this in all the ancient and customary ways. In public we scoff at titles and hereditary privilege, but privately we hanker after them, and when we get a chance we buy them for cash and a daughter.

  Mark Twain

  Daughter, America, Envy

  Mark Twain (2010). “Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review”, p.80, Univ of Wisconsin Press

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• Everything is un-American that tends either to government by a plutocracy or government by a mob. To divide along the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All privileges based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men merely because they are wealthy, are un-American-both of them equally so. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Men, America, Safety

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• You will perceive by my preaching that I am growing old: it is the privilege of years, and I am sure you will pardon it from the purity of it's motives.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Years, Age, Growing

  Thomas Jefferson, Lyman Henry Butterfield (1954). “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: 1 November, 1785 to 22 June, 1786”

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• Let me just say, at once: I am not now nor have I ever been a white man. And, leaving aside the joys of unearned privilege, this leaves me feeling pretty good.

  June Jordan

  Men, White, Joy

  June Jordan (2009). “Some of Us Did Not Die: New and Selected Essays”, p.129, Basic Books

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• In your ordered verdict of guilty, you have trampled under foot every vital principle of our government. My natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights, my judicial rights are all alike ignored. Robbed of the fundamental privilege of citizenship, I am degraded from the status of a citizen to that of a subject; and not only myself individually, but all of my sex, are, by your honor's verdict, doomed to political subjection under this, so-called, form of government.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Sex, Rights, Government

  "An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the Charge of Illegal Voting: At the Presidential Election in Nov., 1872" by Susan B. Anthony, Rochester N.Y.: Daily democrat & chronicle book print, 1874.

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• It used to be said in antislavery days that a people who would tacitly consent to the enslavement of 4,000,000 human beings were incapable of being just to each other, and I believe this same rule holds with regard to the injustice practiced by men towards women. So long as all men conspire to rob women of the citizen's right to perfect equality in all the privileges and immunities of our so-called "free" government, we can not expect these same men to be capable of perfect justice to each other.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Believe, Equality, Men

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