Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [401-420] of 443 Oppression quotesOppression QuotesOppression Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes The last stage but one of every civilisation, is characterised by the forced political unification of its constituent parts, into a single greater whole.~ Arnold J. Toynbee Religions are illogical primitive ignorance. There is nothing as ridiculous and tragic as a religious government.~ Leon Trotsky I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more if they had known they were slaves.~ Harriet Tubman 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.~ Bishop Desmond Tutu We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose. We cannot afford to use methods of which we will be ashamed when we look back, when we say, '...we shouldn't have done that.' We must remember, my friends, that we have been given a wonderful cause. The cause of freedom! And you and I must be those who will walk with heads held high. We will say, 'We used methods that can stand the harsh scrutiny of history.'~ Bishop Desmond Tutu The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivaly of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in time, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise.~ Mark Twain The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complaceny to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage.~ Sir Alex Fraser Tytler We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.~ Stewart L. Udall Do not mistake for conspiracy and intrigue what can best be explained by stupidity and incompetence.~ Unknown The worst penalties are always imposed on those seeking to help the oppressed.~ Unknown We [the U.S.] must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order . . . we must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role. ~ U.S. Department of Defense Planning Guide for 1994-1999 The United States must cultivate a mental view toward world settlement after this war which will enable us to impose our own terms, amounting perhaps to a pax-Americana.~ U.S. Department of State Is it not ironical that in a planned society of controlled workers given compulsory assignments, where religious expression is suppressed, the press controlled, and all media of communication censored, where a puppet government is encouraged but denied any real authority, where great attention is given to efficiency and character reports, and attendance at cultural assemblies is mandatory, where it is avowed that all will be administered to each according to his needs and performance required from each according to his abilities, and where those who flee are tracked down, returned, and punished for trying to escape - in short in the milieu of the typical large American secondary school - we attempt to teach 'the democratic system'?~ Royce Van Norman Productive, private citizens in outlying regions of our nation and states are financially burdened to pay for a parasite public economy of lawmakers, lobbyists, contractors, and bureaucrats in the political centers.~ Richard K. Vedder It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.~ Voltaire The struggle for freedom ... is not the struggle of the many against the few, but of minorities -- sometimes of a minority of but one man -- against the majority.~ Ludwig von Mises This, then, is freedom in the external life of man -- that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows.~ Ludwig von Mises It is not conclusive proof of a doctrine’s correctness that its adversaries use the police, the hangman, and violent mobs to fight it. But it is a proof of the fact that those taking recourse to violent oppression are in their subconscious convinced of the untenability of their own doctrines.~ Ludwig Von Mises Stop wasting jail space on prostitutes, drug users and other victimless criminals. Even if we find it morally acceptable to imprison these people for choices they make regarding their bodies, we must realize that we simply cannot afford to continue clogging the court system and the prison system with these harmless criminals.~ Edward B. Wagner From the utopian viewpoint, the United States constitution is a singularly hard-bitten and cautious document, for it breathes the spirit of skepticism about human altruism and incorporates a complex system of checks, balances and restrictions, so that everybody is holding the reins on everybody else.~ Chad Walsh Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print