Dehumanization Quotes

“Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.”
― Audre Lorde

“He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night

“Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.”
― Audre Lorde

“But on Kwajalein, the guards sought to deprive them of something that had sustained them even as all else had been lost: dignity. This self-respect and sense of self-worth, the innermost armament of the soul, lies at the heart of humanness; to be deprived of it is to be dehumanized, to be cleaved from, and cast below, mankind.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“The human need to be visible is countered by the need to be invisible to avoid further abuse, and the need for intimacy and the dread of abuse, all pose insoluble dichotomies which promote further withdrawal from human contact, which reinforces the sense of dehumanisation.”
― Christiane Sanderson, Introduction to Counselling Survivors of Interpersonal Trauma

“On the Bigotry of Culture:
: it presented us with culture, with thought as something justified in itself, that is, which requires no justification but is valid by it's own essence, whatever its concrete employment and content maybe. Human life was to put itself at the service of culture because only thus would it become charged with value. From which it would follow that human life, our pure existence was, in itself, a mean and worthless thing.”
― José Ortega y Gasset, The Dehumanization of Art and Other Essays on Art, Culture and Literature

“While we can all accept that bullying and abuse betray a lack or loss of respect for other human beings, there is a deeper issue: the devaluing of human life; and that in turn indicates a lack or loss of respect for the Giver of human life and dignity, God Himself. The message a bully sends is a mockery of God's handiwork, a lie that slanders God's nature and negates His love for us.”
― Frank E. Peretti, The Wounded Spirit

“It is harder to dehumanize a single individual that you have gotten the chance to know. Which is why people and groups who seek power and division do not bother with dehumanizing and individual. Better to attach a stigma a taint of pollution to an entire group.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Throughout this conversation, it’s important to remember that you’re communicating with a real human being — a person with feelings, stories, history, trauma, heart, and the same needs as you to be heard, understood, and most importantly, respected. Kashdan said that the now-common, overused practice of labeling people as narcissists, gaslighters, and toxic can make us dehumanize other people, especially when their opinions don’t reflect our values.

That’s why it’s important to listen to others and understand their point of view. Humans have the ability to change and improve themselves. Minson highlights that when we see that potential in those we disagree with, we’re likely to engage with them more effectively. It’s important to avoid seeing people as “good” or “bad.” This will help you extend some grace and empathy to the other person.”
― Evelyn Nam

“Because they watch (us). They're taught how to, from school. They are taught to view our bodies (selves) as objects.”
― Natasha Brown, Assembly

“who is more barbaric? The alleged cannibalistic savages, who at least waited until their victims were dead before they cooked and ate them? Or the European slave traders who thrived on live meat, that is, the exploitation of these human 'animals'?”
― Samantha Hurn, Humans and Other Animals: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Interactions

“[W]ho is more barbaric? The alleged cannibalistic savages, who at least waited until their victims were dead before they cooked and ate them? Or the European slave traders who thrived on live meat, that is, the exploitation of these human 'animals'?”
― Samantha Hurn, Humans and Other Animals: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Human-Animal Interactions

“Paradoxically, they needed Indians to be Indians at the same time they needed to define all that was Indian as inferior and in need of Spanish domination.”
― Aviva Chomsky, Central America's Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Migration

“...my worry is that this polarization, along with more and more dependance on virtual reality, prevents us from connecting with other human beings and with the real world. This lack of connection dehumanizes not just others but also ourselves.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“Increasing policing and government programs an teaching women how to be safe is not going to correct this situation. Only understanding and a commitment to telling the truth about the cruelty inflicted on our women in the name of settling this country would help change peoples’ perceptions, end their complacency, and stop the continued brutalization and dehumanization of our women.”
― Michelle Good, Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada

“Mass movements use irrationality to shut out the intellect, to turn people into predictable, mindless machines. Both Stalin and Hitler used blind faith as a device for mechanizing souls. (11)”
― Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition

“I was lost and would remain lost and all I could expect was to survive. So I had made decisions like someone who wasn't a person, who just wanted to survive.”
― Jeff VanderMeer, Borne

“The progress and comfort have multiplied men. To the point of reducing them to numbers, the billions.”
― Raydrich Rocha, Consciência: Delírios e Galopes

“O progresso e o conforto multiplicaram os homens. Multiplicaram a ponto de serem reduzidos a números, os bilhões.”
― Raydrich Rocha, Consciência: Delírios e Galopes

“I was something else and that something was less than a chicken sitting in the sun on a tub”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers-not the defined”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“That anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. Dirty you so bad you forgot who you were and couldn't think it up.”
― Toni Morrison

“It scarcely surprised him that he had become so inconsiderate of the others; earlier on, his considerateness had been a source of pride.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“I’d been so deep in my self-loathing I thought everyone just hated me. I was wrong. Everyone hated everyone.”
― Luke Arnold, The Last Smile in Sunder City

“Storytelling isn’t a luxury. It’s how we decide who gets to be human.”
― Lawrence Nault

“So far I’ve been describing a process of getting to know someone as if we live in normal times. I’ve been writing as if we live in a healthy cultural environment, in a society in which people are enmeshed in thick communities and webs of friendship, trust, and belonging. We don’t live in such a society. We live in an environment in which political animosities, technological dehumanization, and social breakdown undermine connection, strain friendships, erase intimacy, and foster distrust. We’re living in the middle of some sort of vast emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis. It is as if people across society have lost the ability to see and understand one another, thus producing a culture that can be brutalizing and isolating.”
― David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

“Before the human race becomes equal, first the dehumanized must reign supreme.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“Diary of Dervish Advaitam
(Naskaristana 2738)

The other day I was reminiscing,
which was the first inhumanity
that lit the fuse of my life,
and I think I figured it out -

it was probably Islamophobia, which turned
my life into a living rebuttal to every
form of dehumanization disguised as heritage -

perhaps that was when the dervish took root,
even though on paper I wasn't a muslim -
papers identify monkeys, not the human spirit;

a dervish is no longer a muslim,
just like an advaitin is not a hindu,
and a christly person is not a christian -
religion of a dervish is love,
religion of an advaitin is oneness,
religion of a christ is kindness.

Quietly an advaitin became dervish,
and emerged Dervish Advaitam,
with languages of the world as master power,
and sciences of the mind as master plan.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“To burn the bridges with dehumanizers is the first requirement of civilization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace

“Dehumanization always comes bearing the badge of religion, and waving the flag of reason.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Nazmahal: Palace of Grace