We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
You know, it’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
True enough, the country is calm. Calm as a morgue or a grave, would you not say?
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
—Desmond Tutu (b.1931) South African Clergyman
Ours is the century of enforced travel… of disappearances. The century of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
Do not be misled by the fact that you are at liberty and relatively free; that for the moment you are not under lock and key: you have simply been granted a reprieve.
—Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932–2007) Polish Journalist
Fear of serious injury alone cannot justify oppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
There can be no really pervasive system of oppression, such as that in the United States, without the consent of the oppressed
—Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (1890–1995) American Socialite, Philanthropist
Oppression is more easily borne than insult.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
If a man wishes to rid himself of a feeling of unbearable oppression, he may have to take hashish.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
Fishes live in the sea, as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.
—Tacitus (56–117) Roman Orator, Historian
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
An extreme rigor is sure to arm everything against it.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
My dear fellow citizens: For forty years you have heard from my predecessors on this day different variations of the same theme: how our country flourished, how many millions of tons of steel we produced, how happy we all were, how we trusted our government, and what bright perspectives were unfolding in front of us. I assume you did not propose me for this office so that I, too, would lie to you. . . We live in a contaminated moral environment. We have fallen morally ill because we became used to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, to ignore each other, to care only about ourselves. Notions such as love, friendship, compassion, humility, or forgiveness have lost their depth and dimensions. . . The previous regime . . . reduced man to a means of production and nature to a tool of production. Thus it attacked both their very essence and their mutual relationship. It reduced gifted and autonomous people to nuts and bolts in some monstrously huge, noisy, and stinking machine.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Some men look at things the way they are and ask why? I dream of things that are not and ask why not?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
All oppression creates a state of war; this is no exception.
—Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) French Philosopher, Writer, Feminist
Oppression is but another name for irresponsible power, if history is to be trusted.
—William Pinkney (1764–1822) American Politician, Diplomat
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.
—Frederick Douglass (1817–95) American Abolitionist, Author, Editor, Diplomat, Leader
An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
A handful of soldiers is always better than a mouthful of arguments.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on; and doves will peck, in safeguard of their brood.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
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