Berker

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”
― Eugene V. Debs

“I enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind; I did not feel the treachery or inconstancy of a friend, nor the injuries of a secret or open enemy.  I had no occasion of bribing, flattering, or pimping, to procure the favour of any great man, or of his minion; I wanted no fence against fraud or oppression: here was neither physician to destroy my body, nor lawyer to ruin my fortune; no informer to watch my words and actions, or forge accusations against me for hire: here were no gibers, censurers, backbiters, pickpockets, highwaymen, housebreakers, attorneys, bawds, buffoons, gamesters, politicians, wits, splenetics, tedious talkers, controvertists, ravishers, murderers, robbers, virtuosos; no leaders, or followers, of party and faction; no encouragers to vice, by seducement or examples; no dungeon, axes, gibbets, whipping-posts, or pillories; no cheating shopkeepers or mechanics; no pride, vanity, or affectation; no fops, bullies, drunkards, strolling whores, or poxes; no ranting, lewd, expensive wives; no stupid, proud pedants; no importunate, overbearing, quarrelsome, noisy, roaring, empty, conceited, swearing companions; no scoundrels raised from the dust upon the merit of their vices, or nobility thrown into it on account of their virtues; no lords, fiddlers, judges, or dancing-masters.”
― Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

“Biliyorum ki, döktüğünüz kanı siz değil, yalılarda yaşayan ve şiir yazıp sizi hakir gören nazik adamlar içecektir. Kostantiniye'nin kibar insanları kanla beslenir, ama siz değil! Bu yüzden siz onlardan temizsiniz! Ancak kan görünce bayılan ve vahşetten nefret eden bu beyzadeler, sizleri daima ayak takımı olarak gördüler ve göreceklerdir. Onların ruhlarının ve vicdanlarının temiz olması için, bizzat sizler, ellerinizi çamura sokacaksınız. getirdiğiniz ganimetin neredeyse hepsi, bu kibar efendilerin kesesine girecektir. Ocağımızın kanunu odur ki, onların içmesi için sadece kan dökmeyecek, ayrıca şu koca Kostantiniye'nin sokaklarında dönüp sizin suratınıza bile bakmadıkları zaman onlara tahammül de edeceksiniz! Şairler mersiye, destan, gazel yazacak. Ne ile mi? Mürekkeple değil elbette! Kanla yazacaklar ve ünlerini ebediyete kadar sürdürecekler! Sizden istenen de bu: Kostantiniye'ye kan getirin!”
― İhsan Oktay Anar, Amat

“I would not be a Moses to lead you into the Promised Land, because if I could lead you into it, someone else could lead you out of it.”
― Eugene V Debs