Quotes about Oppression

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

Oh Lord,' inquired Isabella, 'what is this slavery, that it can do such dreadful things? what evil can it not do?' Well may she ask, for surely the evils it can and does do, daily and hourly, can never be summed up, till we can see them as they are recorded by him who writes no errors, and reckons without mistake.

And a'n't, I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern, and seen 'em mos' all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And a'n't I a woman?

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

The good man, though a slave, is free; the wicked, though he reigns, is a slave.

Therefore the good man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave.

Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others.

...oppression is as American as apple pie...

The sin of slavery is one of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.

Great men cultivate love and only little men cherish a spirit of hatred; assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.