Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [361-380] of 443 Oppression quotesOppression QuotesOppression Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The prohibition law, written for weaklings and derelicts, has divided the nation, like Gaul, into three parts -- wets, drys, and hypocrites.~ Florence Sabin Fascism, communism and national socialism all share in common the explicit premise that the individual must subordinate himself to society's needs, or as Hitler would phrase it: 'Society's needs come before the individual needs.' ~ A. E. Samaan Standing up to a tyrant has always been illegal and dangerous. There is no guarantee but one -- to not live like a slave, nor to die like one.~ Eric Schaub No, there is a limit to the tyrant's power! When the oppressed man finds no justice, When the burden grows unbearable, he appeals With fearless heart to Heaven, And thence brings down his everlasting rights, Which there abide, inalienably his, And indestructible as stars themselves. The primal state of nature reappears, Wherein man confronts his fellow man; And if all other means shall fail his need, One last resort remains—his own good sword. The dearest of our goods we may defend From violence. We stand before our country, We stand before our wives, before our children!~ Friedrich Schiller Those who are convinced they have a monopoly on The Truth always feel that they are only saving the world when they slaughter the heretics.~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The uneven impact of actual enforcement measures tends to mirror and reinforce more general patterns of discrimination (along socioeconomic, racial and ethnic, sexual, and perhaps generational lines) within the society. As a consequence, such enforcement (ineffective as it may be in producing conformity) almost certainly reinforces feelings of alienation already prevalent within major segments of the population.~ Edwin M. Schur I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.~ Albert Schweitzer Since March 9, 1933, the United States has been in a state of declared national emergency....Under the powers delegated by these statutes, the President may: seize property; organize and control the means of production; seize commodities; assign military forces abroad; institute martial law; seize and control all transportation and communication; regulate the operation of private enterprise; restrict travel; and, in a plethora of particular ways, control the lives of all American citizens. ... A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedoms and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by states of national emergency....from, at least, the Civil War in important ways shaped the present phenomenon of a permanent state of national emergency.~ Senate Report, 93rd Congress Once again prosperous and successful crime goes by the name of virtue; good men obey the bad, might is right and fear oppresses law.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca Because we fear the responsibility for our actions, we have allowed ourselves to develop the mentality of slaves. Contrary to the stirring sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, we now pledge "our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" not to one another for our mutual protection, but to the state, whose actions continue to exploit, despoil, and destroy us.~ Butler D. Shaffer The idea of creating systems designed to threaten, coerce, and kill, and to imbue such agencies with principled legitimacy, and not expect them to lead to wars, genocides, and other tyrannical practices, expresses an innocence we can no longer afford to indulge.~ Butler D. Shaffer We find it intolerable that one constitutional right should have to be surrendered in order to assert another.~ Simmons v. U.S. The proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from [businessmen], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.~ Adam Smith Each day, it seemed, another law was passed to impoverish and diminish them, punishing them for whatever success they achieved and rewarding their less competent and industrious neighbors.~ L. Neil Smith No one is fit to be trusted with power. ... No one. ... Any man who has lived at all knows the follies and wickedness he's capable of. ... And if he does know it, he knows also that neither he nor any man ought to be allowed to decide a single human fate.~ C. P. Snow The attempt to silence a man is the greatest honour you can bestow on him. It means that you recognise his superiority to yourself.~ Joseph Sobran We can have justice whenever those who have not been injured by injustice are as outraged by it as those who have been.~ Solon If through your vices you afflicted are, Lay not the blame of your distress on God; You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards, So now you groan 'neath slavery's heavy rod.~ Solon All socialism involves slavery.... That which fundamentally distinguishes the slave is that he labors under coercion to satisfy another's desires. The relation admits of many gradations. Oppressive taxation is a form of slavery of the individual to the community as a whole. The essential question is -- How much is he compelled to labor for other benefit than his own, and how much can he labor for his own benefit?~ Herbert Spencer Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print