Oppressor Quotes

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
― Elie Wiesel

“the oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed”
― Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity

“The oppressor shows solidarity with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labour — when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“Violence is initiated by those who oppress, who exploit, who fail to recognize others as people - not by those who are oppressed, exploited, and unrecognized. It is not the unloved who initiate disaffection, but those who cannot love because they love only themselves. It is not the helpless, subject to terror, who initiate terror, but the violent, who with their power create the concrete situation which begets the 'rejects of life.' It is not the tyrannized who initiate despotism, but the tyrants. It is not those whose humanity is denied them who negate humankind, but those who denied that humanity (thus negating their own as well). Force is used not by those who have become weak under the preponderance of the strong, but by the strong who have emasculated them.”
― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

“Individuals with greed for power see others as elements to be oppressed.”
― Sunday Adelaja, The Mountain of Ignorance

“...the oppressor is truly repressed. Their poverty is existential, often surrounded by an abundance of material goods. (Leonardo Boff, p. 179)”
― Mev Puleo, The Struggle Is One: Voices and Visions of Liberation

“The cramping influence of a hard formalist on a young child in repressing his spirits and courage, paralyzing the understanding, and that without producing indignation, but only fear and obedience, and even much sympathy with his tyranny, - is a familiar fact explained to the child when he becomes a man, only by seeing that the oppressor of his youth is himself a child tyrannized over by those names and words and forma, of whose influence he was merely the organ to the youth.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The oppressor will always despise their victims.”
― Sunday Adelaja, The Mountain of Ignorance

“Keep the people uneducated and underfed and they'll lavish praise on you for your generosity when you give them a scrap of bread and a pat on the head. Give them more than the minimum and you might find they're better at your job than you are, because their skills are revealed when they can focus on more than survival.”
― Courtney M. Privett, Faelost

“Restrain the oppressor, don't harm them.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society

“I Am Ukraine (The Sonnet)

Peace doesn't come through prayers,
Peace comes through responsible action.
When the invader stomps on innocent lives,
Not choosing a side is a consent to oppression.
Ask us for water, we won't let you go unfed,
But do not mistake our gentleness as fear.
If you so much as lay a finger on our home,
We'll defend it with our blood, sweat 'n tears.
We ain't no coward to selfishly seek security,
When our land is being ransacked by raccoons.
When the lives of our loved ones are at stake,
We'll break but never bend to oligarchical buffoons.
The love of our families is what keeps us breathing.
To preserve their smiles, we shall happily die fighting.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Gentalist: There's No Social Work, Only Family Work

“By their hands, we succeed. By their arrogance, we prosper. They believed we would always play the game. Blocked by their certainty of our inferiority, they never imagined we would cease to collaborate in our own oppression.”
― Nichol Bradford, The Sisterhood

“As a result of this greed for power, the poor is not only silenced but also oppressed.”
― Sunday Adelaja, The Mountain of Ignorance

“Religion is a bludgeon in the hand of the oppressor to suppress the oppressed”
― Jahanshah Safari

“The oppressor is bent on destruction. But our defender is the LORD. He shall deliver us from any harm.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Killing a tyrant only postpones tyranny. Focus on building a humane society, so that none of the kids ever winds up a tyrant.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“Whenever a man cowers,
he loses his inner peace, diminishes himself before himself,
and makes the oppressor gigantic.”
― Augusto Branco

“Oppression is the character of stupid people if God wanted to punish a folk, will put them under the hands of the oppressors.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“Every time a man cowers,
he loses his inner peace, shrinks before himself
and magnifies the oppressor.”
― Augusto Branco

“If you support the oppressed and prevent the oppressor from being unfair, then know that God guided you.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“Do not be with the oppressor, help the oppressed and prevent the oppressor from being unfair.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“Everything in the hands of an oppressor is a tool”
― Seun Ayilara

“Be neither oppressor nor oppressed in life. If you don't act according to people's minds, you will be deprived of your rights.”
― Kamaran Ihsan Salih

“The enchained now think they are free because the handler's hand is no longer in view/hidden.”
― Seun Ayilara

“The oppressor bears the weight of guilt, while the victim finds solace in pity.”
― Aziz Ahmed Malik

“To turn from the Oppressed into the Oppressor, requires neither Courage, Honor, Loyalty, Intelligence, Patience, nor any other praisable characteristic Attributes.”
― Sino Melo

“Justice is not achieved by claiming the middle ground between oppressor and oppressed, but by standing where embodied love is likely to cost us something.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci

“When ethnic cleansing becomes your religion, mutiny becomes our right.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology

“A person who works for an oppressive regime is an oppressor.”
― Pramoedya Ananta Toer, The Fugitive

“Wanna see the damage religion has done to your people? Wait for the worst of their oppressors to die and look for the prayers they offer them.”
― Darnell Lamont Walker