Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [1-20] of 443 Oppression quotesOppression QuotesOppression Next 20 quotes It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.~ Lord Acton Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.~ John Adams All Men have a Right to remain in a State of Nature as long as they please: And in case of intolerable Oppression, civil or religious, to leave the Society they belong to and enter into another. When Men enter into Society, it is by voluntary Consent, and they have a Right to demand and insist upon the performance of such Conditions and previous Limitations as form an equitable original Compact.~ Samuel Adams The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.~ Samuel Adams Dogma is the convictions of one man imposed authoritatively upon others.~ Felix Adler Through the rapid proliferation of laws reaching every corner of human existence, “the government is manufacturing more criminals now than ever before.” The list of illegal activities includes more minutiae than one would think possible. Beer-makers are barred from listing alcohol content on bottles, and liquor distilleries cannot advertise on TV. Filling one’s own prairie pothole can land a property owner in jail, as can protecting private property from unlawful intruders. Placing handbills in neighbors’ mailboxes is strictly prohibited, and attempting to sell nectarines of an improper size is a federal offense. Companies are no longer allowed to give salaried professionals partial days off without pay, and in Texas it is a crime to call oneself an interior designer without the government’s permission. It is perhaps easier to recount all that remains legal than all that is now prohibited.~ Jonathan H. Adler Do you think someone who is about to rape you is going to stop and think about a condom?~ Eli Adorno Destiny waits alike for the free man as well as for him enslaved by another's might.~ Aeschylus That the sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when the government assumes other functions it is usurpation and oppression.~ Alabama, Declaration of Rights Article I Section 35 We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the wisdom to make the right choice.~ Woody Allen It is the duty of the officials to prevent or suppress the threatened disorder with a firm hand instead of timidly yielding to threats…. Surely a speaker ought not to be suppressed because his opponents propose to use violence. It is they who should suffer from their lawlessness, not he.~ American Bar Association In politics, love is a stranger, and when it intrudes upon it nothing is being achieved except hypocrisy. All the characteristics you stress in the Negro people: their beauty, their capacity for joy, their warmth, and their humanity, are well-known characteristics of all oppressed people. They grow out of suffering and they are the proudest possession of all pariahs. Unfortunately, they have never survived the hour of liberation by even five minutes. Hatred and love belong together, and they are both destructive; you can afford them only in private and, as a people, only so long as you are not free.~ Hannah Arendt The wise learn many things from their enemies.~ Aristophanes To the size of the state there is a limit, as there is to plants, animals and implements, for none of these retain their facility when they are too large.~ Aristotle What a pity, when Christopher Columbus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it.~ Margot Asquith The use of “religion” as an excuse to repress the freedom of expression and to deny human rights is not confined to any country or time.~ Margaret Atwood Persecution in intellectual countries produces a superficial conformity, but also underneath an intense, incessant, implacable doubt.~ Walter Bagehot The communism of Marx seeks a strong state centralization, and where this exists, there the parasitic Jewish nation -- which speculates upon the labor of people - will always find the means for its existence.~ Mikhail Bakunin The oppression of any people for opinion’s sake has rarely had any other effect than to fix those opinions deeper, and render them more important.~ Hosea Ballou I have great sympathy for the oppressed but I do not expect them to be morally superior to the oppressors. I merely expect them to be oppressed.~ Jerome Barkow Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print