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Oppressors Quotes

You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

Desmond Tutu
Sides, Oppressed, Oppressors
"Desmond Tutu is one of a rare breed" by Cath Elliott, www.theguardian.com. September 17, 2010.

To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.

Jane Elliott
Courage, Oppressors

If you advise someone on the condition that they have to accept it, then you are an oppressor.

Ibn Hazm
Accepting, Advise, Oppressors

It is only the oppressed who, by freeing themselves, can free their oppressors.

Paulo Freire
Oppressed, Oppressors
Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.40, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

The ignorance of the oppressed is strength for the oppressor.

A. R. Bernard
Ignorance, Oppressed, Oppressors

Evil can be opposed without being mirrored. Oppressors can be resisted without being emulated. Enemies can be neutralized without being destroyed.

Walter Wink
Evil, Enemy, Oppressors

Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor.

Derrick Bell
Hands, Reformers, Oppressors
Derrick Bell (2010). “Ethical Ambition”, p.60, A&C Black

Our task is not to liberate the oppressed, but to liberate the oppressors

Nelson Mandela
Tasks, Oppressed, Oppressors

Forgiveness is commendable, but apply not ointment to the wound of an oppressor.

Saadi
Forgiveness, Oppressors, Wounds
Saadi, Francis Gladwin, Eric Serejski (2016). “Gulistan or Rose Garden”, p.150, Innovations and Information

Our parents are our first oppressors.

Jerry Rubin
Parent, Firsts, Oppressors

The oppressed find in the oppressors their model of 'manhood.'

Paulo Freire
Models, Oppressed, Oppressors
Paulo Freire (2014). “Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition”, p.33, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

But nonviolence was never for the oppressor; it was for the oppressed.

Nikki Giovanni
Oppressed, Oppressors, Nonviolence
Nikki Giovanni (1988). “Sacred cows-- and other edibles”, William Morrow & Co

God wants to set the oppressed free from being oppressed and the oppressors free from oppressing.

Desmond Tutu
Want, Oppressed, Oppressors

Tremble, all ye oppressors of the world!

Richard Price
Law, World, Oppressors
Richard Price (1790). “A Discourse on the Love of Our Country: Delivered on Nov. 4, 1789, at the Meeting-house in the Old Jewry, to the Society for Commemorating the Revolution in Great Britain”, p.50

It is doubtful if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power - power to oppress others. The oppressed want above all to imitate their oppressors; they want to retaliate.

Eric Hoffer
Want, Oppressed, Oppressors
"War and Conflict Quotations: A Worldwide Dictionary". Book by Jean Freestone Thomsett and Michael Thomsett, 1997.

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