Slave Quotes - Page 37

• Was not necessity the plea of every illegal exertion of power or exercise of oppression?...Necessity is the plea for very infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

  William Pitt

  Exercise, Tyrants, Slavery

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• The way we value black beauty has changed. I'm single now, but back in the slave days, I would have never been single. I'm 6 feet tall and I'm strong. Look at me, I'm a Mandingo.

  Leslie Jones

  Strong, Feet, Black

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• I am a slave of Ramakrishna, who left his work to be done by me and will not give me rest till I have finished it. And oh, how shall I speak of him? Oh, his love for me!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Giving, Done, His Love

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Swami Vivekananda on Himself”, p.236, Advaita Ashrama

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• The power of our Muse lies in her meaninglessness. Even the style can turn one into a slave if one does not run away from it, and then one is doomed to repeat oneself.

  Gueorgui Pinkhassov

  Running, Lying, Style

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• I came to photography with the desire to conquer this machine, the camera, and make it my slave. Instead, I have now a respect for it and all machines as expanders of my awareness.

  Todd Walker

  Photography, Desire, Machines

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• 'Rugged individualism' has meant all the 'individualism' for the masters, while the people are regimented into a slave caste to serve a handful of self-seeking 'supermen.' America is perhaps the best representative of this kind of individualism, in whose name political tyranny and social oppression are defended and held up as virtues; while every aspiration and attempt of man to gain freedom and social opportunity to live is denounced as 'un-American' and evil in the name of that same individuality.

  Emma Goldman

  Men, Opportunity, America

  "The Individual, Society and the State". Book by Emma Goldman (p. 112), 1937.

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• Better a sovereign in squalor than a slave in splendor.

  Donald James

  Sovereign, Splendor, Squalor

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• If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave.

  Richard Mitchell

  Language, Masters, Ifs

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• Bodily pleasure is not in itself a bad thing. But when it is exalted to a necessity and we become dependent upon it, then we are slaves of our body and its feelings. Only misery lies ahead.

  Dallas Willard

  Lying, Feelings, Body

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• The Slave must be made fit for his freedom by education and discipline, and thus made unfit for slavery. And as soon as he becomes unfit for slavery, the master will no longer desire to hold him as a slave.

  Jefferson Davis

  Discipline, Desire, Slavery

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• As for the South, it is enough to say that perhaps eighty per cent. of her armies were neither slave-holders, nor had the remotest interest in the institution. No other proof, however, is needed than the undeniable fact that at any period of the war from its beginning to near its close the South could have saved slavery by simply laying down its arms and returning to the Union.

  John Brown Gordon

  War, Army, Slavery

  John Brown Gordon (1904). “Reminiscences of the Civil War”

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• Some summers my father would take us down to visit our grandmother in Louisville, who was an ex-slave, Susan Jones, and she had a shotgun shack they call it, and no electricity, a well in the back, a coal stove, kerosene lamps.

  Quincy Jones

  Summer, Father, Grandmother

  "Grammy Legend Award". Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. October 28, 2000.

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• They're turnin' kids into slaves just to make cheaper sneakers But what's the real cost 'cause the sneakers don't seem that much cheaper Why are we still payin' so much for sneakers when you got them made by little slave kids? What are your overheads?!

  Jemaine Clement

  Real, Kids, Sneakers

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• Everything comes from one thing, everything comes from the Spirit. Jazz would not exist had it not been for gospel music, the blues would not exist had it not been for spiritual blues, which goes back to slave songs our fore fathers were singing while they were out in the field. So it's all one continuous growth from one group of people. Of course jazz now is played by various cultures and colors around the world. But the stimulus is One Voice.

  Ramsey Lewis

  Spiritual, Song, Father

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• Sometimes you've got to draw a line between having all the options and being a slave to the things, using them every time you play the guitar. I'm trying to keep a real inconsistency to the pedals so that it is something new every time.

  Joshua Homme

  Real, Guitar, Play

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• Our past as well as our future. It could have been completely destroyed when we were brought to the New World as slaves. They even took away our drums. And I don't want to talk about all those negative things going on. But its music is more present in our lives than ever. Blues, samba, calypso, reggae, jazz, salsa, Africa is everywhere.

  Randy Weston

  Past, Negative, World

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• Joel Chandler Harris, who created a multi billion dollar industry, everything from his books, to Disney's "Song of the South" based upon the Uncle Remus stories. He got his start by transcribing the stories of slave Informants. I'm sure that none them got a dime.

  Ishmael Reed

  Song, Uncles, Book

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Not surprisingly, thinkers from groups for whom whiteness was and is a problem have taken the lead in studying whiteness in this way. Such study began with slave folktales and American Indian stories of contact with whites.

  David Roediger

  Taken, Groups, Stories

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Yes it is true that pro-capitalist forces have a lot of power. But so did slave-holding racists. We give ourselves hope when we conceptualize capitalism as a set of practices that can be challenged by fighting the piece of the puzzle we feel most compelled to fight.

  Cynthia Kauffman

  Fighting, Practice, Giving

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• Whenever Hollywood makes films about us, it's 12 Years a Slave or The Butler or The Help. That is not the sum total of who we are as a people.

  Mo Abudu

  Years, People, Hollywood

  Source: www.ebony.com

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• Some of the guys in the Northern Alliance are war criminals. One of the Northern Alliance commanders ran a slave girl network in Kabul in 1994. Remember that there was a period when every woman on the streets was at risk of being raped. This was the Northern Alliance period of glory.

  Robert Fisk

  Girl, War, Guy

  Interview with Matthew Rothschild, progressive.org. November 30, 2001.

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• I am a slave to fashion. I love to get into what's hot and current when I dress myself or somebody else. Usually, it's someone else because I'm constantly working on finding the best looks for actors.

  Ruth E. Carter

  Fashion, Dresses, Hot

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• I learned that not only am I a descendant of slaves, but that I am also a descendant of royalty, that there are politicians from the 1800s as well as Tuskegee Airmen in my lineage.

  Cuba Gooding, Jr.

  Lineage, Politician, Royalty

  Interview with Kam Williams, www.kamwilliams.com. January 17, 2012.

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• Frankly, Django is an American story that needs to be told, when you think of slavery existing in this country for 245 years. In slave narratives there were all types of tales and drama and heroism and pain and love that happened during that time. That's rich material for drama! Everyone complains that there are no new stories left to tell. Not true, there are a whole bunch of them, and they're all American with a capital A.

  Quentin Tarantino

  Country, Pain, Drama

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• There's still nearly the same amount of slavery, if not more, in the world today, as there was at the height of the slave trade.

  Benedict Cumberbatch

  World, Slavery, Height

  "Benedict Cumberbatch - "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug". Interview with Kam Williams, www.eurweb.com. December, 2013.

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