80 Powerful Oppression Quotes about Fighting against Oppression

Oppression is described as exploitation or cornering of a group of people based on gender, cast or creed, oppression quotes mentioned in this article highlight different aspects of oppression and its impact on society as a whole.

These underlying oppression quotes also focus on female oppression because as bitter and unfortunate as it may seem but we live in a male-dominated society. These female oppression quotes challenge gender norms that confine an individual to do things only available for his or her category. Considering that every action has its equal and opposite reaction oppression justifiably results in revolt. As we are all aware of the movements of feminism going on for more than a century.

According to these oppression quotes by influential people oppression is problematic for a society despite which group you belong to and where you are located. Oppression in general can trigger the feeling of isolation which endangers the society’s unity as per these quotes about oppression.

There are different varieties of oppression including institutional oppression that outruns the law and order on power and monetary basis. Racial and class oppression that make a person feel inferior about his position in the society.  

We bring you a few oppressions quotes that worked as a motivation to fight against this evil over time.      

Best Oppression Quotes All Time

This section of oppression quotes brings you the most valued and accepted quotes about oppression by most influential individuals who have a huge impact on the society. Few of the most inspirational oppression quotes are numbered and listed under.

1. The most odious of all oppressions are those which mask as justice. –Robert H. Jackson
2. The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. –Steven Biko
3. It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone. Never let anyone tell you that what you are doing is insignificant. –Desmond Tutu
4. Never forget that turning a blind eye to oppression and watching from the sidelines is itself oppression. –Harun Yahya
5. People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
6. We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression. –Confucius
7. Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission. –Simone Weil
8. If you are neutral in situations of injustice you have chosen the side of the oppressor. –Desmond Tutu
9. Being oppressed means the absence of choices. –Bell Hooks
10. No free people ever existed, or can ever exist, without keeping the purse strings in their own hands. Where this is the case, they have a constitutional check upon the administration, which may thereby by brought into order without violence. But when such a power is not lodged in the people, oppression proceeds uncontrolled in its career, till the governed, transported into rage, seek redress in the midst of blood and confusion. –John Dickinson

Oppression Quotes about Resistance to Oppression

Resistance is the key to oppression, once you learn to resist and fight against the ill-treatment your suffering ceases to exist. Oppression quotes are a great motivation to help you do it. Few quotes about resistance to oppression are mentioned below for your assistance.    

1. We have a right, also, in various ways, to act upon our unfavorable opinion of anyone, not to the oppression of his individuality, but in the exercise of ours. –John Stuart Mill
2. Resistance to oppression is second nature. –Seneca The Younger
3. All struggles against oppression in the modern world begin by redefining what had previously been considered private, non-public and non-political issues as matters of public concern, as issues of justice, as sites of power. –Seyla Benhabib.
4. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. –Robert F. Kennedy
5. If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. –James Madison
6. Where there is oppression, there will be resistance. –Assata Shakur
7. Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. –Robert F. Kennedy
8. The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression. –Thomas Paine
9. A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man. –Tacitus
10. Resist any form of oppression.

Famous Oppression Quotes about Freedom

This section of freedom oppression quotes explores various systems and their laws and how liberal these systems are. Freedom and liberty are every individual’s legal right and these freedom from oppression quotes effectively and impactfully highlight its essentiality below in the list.  

1. When feudalism was overthrown and “free” capitalist society appeared in the world, it became apparent that this freedom meant a new system of oppression and exploitation of the working people. –Vladimir Lenin
2. The oppressed peoples can liberate themselves only through struggle. This is a simple and clear truth confirmed by history. –Kim Il-sung
3. In every human beast, God has implanted a principle, which we call love of freedom; it is impatient of oppression, and pants for deliverance. –Phillis Wheatley
4. Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression, because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action. –Malcolm X
5. A country which is governed by the religious rules cannot be called as a country, but just a big open prison! Where freedom of expression doesn’t exist, where freedom is just a dream, over there nothing exists, nothing but the utter ugliness of a fascist oppression! –Mehmet Murat Ildan
6. The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others. –Bell Hooks
7. Neither the chains of dictatorship nor the fetters of oppression can keep down the forces of freedom for long. –Angela Merkel
8. Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.
9. To sing about freedom and to pray for its coming is not enough. Freedom must be actualized in history by oppressed peoples who accept the intellectual challenge to analyze the world for the purpose of changing it. –James Cone
10. There is no greater service we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens. –Calvin Coolidge

Female Oppression Quotes to Break Silence

Silence over female oppression is the worst act possible, these female oppression quotes listed below tend to encourage women to break the silence and speak for themselves. These silence oppression quotes focus on women empowerment and their need to voice their opinions.    

1. Here the oppression of women is very subtle. If we take female circumcision, the excision of the clit##is, it is done physically in Egypt. But here it is done psychologically and by education. So even if women have the clit##is, the clit##iswas banned; it was removed by Freudian theory and by the mainstream culture. –Nawal El Saadawi
2. Feminists are those who dare to break the conspiracy of silence about the oppressive, unequal man-woman relationship and who want to change it. –Maria Mies
3. I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t. –Audre Lorde
4. I am fighting a fight against oppression where the poor and women are being violated. –Mukhtar Mai
5. The subtlest and most vicious aspect of women’s oppression is that we have been conditioned to believe we are not oppressed, blinded so as not to see our own condition. –Robin Morgan 
6. Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression. –Nelson Mandela
7. Simply put, feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression. –Bell Hooks
8. The oppression of women knows no ethnic nor racial boundaries, true, but that does not mean it is identical within those boundaries. –Audre Lorde
9. Unity is power; without unity women cannot fight for their rights anywhere. –Nawal El Saadawi
10. The oppression of women is the single most corrosive and urgent problem of our time. –Brandi Carlile

Women Oppression Quotes

This section of women operation quotes highlights the hypocrisy and the ugly double standards of our society that victimizes women and blames them for being the victim as well. Few of the female oppression quotes are numbered and listed under.

1. When men are oppressed it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed its tradition.
2. A sexual revolution begins with the emancipation of women, who are the chief victims of patriarchy, and also with the ending of homosexual oppression. –Kate Millett
3. The nature of women’s oppression is unique: women are oppressed as women, regardless of class or race; some women have access to significant wealth, but that wealth does not signify power; women are to be found everywhere, but own or control no appreciable territory; women live with those who oppress them, sleep with them, have their children we are tangled, hopelessly it seems, in the gut of the machinery and way of life which is ruinous to us. –Andrea Dworkin
4. Obviously the most oppressed of any oppressed group will be its women. –Lorraine Hansberry
5. Women are oppressed in the east, in the west, in the south, in the north. Women are oppressed inside, outside home, a woman is oppressed in religion, she is oppressed outside religion. –Taslima Nasrin
6. Laughing at the oppression of women is the best medicine for those who fear being laughed at. –Abigail Bray
7. The more I think about the present condition of women, the more am I oppressed with the reality of their degradation. –Elizabeth Cady Stanton
8. When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all regions. –Nawal El Saadawi
9. Black women’s existence, experience and culture and the brutally complex systems of oppression which shape these are in the “real world” of white and/or male consciousness beneath consideration, invisible, unknown. –Barbara Smith
10. When women across the globe have many differences – language, culture, environment – our similarities are undeniable, and the impact of abuse and oppression affects us all.

Oppression Quotes about Fighting against Oppression

This section of quotes about oppression works its way up to encourage people to resist oppression as they are at the right side of the aisle and nothing can change that. Truth always outshines from under the pile of lies and stays bright till eternity. Oppression quotes listed under are a great example.  

1. Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it’s against the oppressor. You don’t need anything else. –Malcolm X
2. You must have a strong will and determined spirit to fight any form of oppression.
3. To fight oppression is my religion. –Imtiyaz Ashraf
4. I am all for fighting tyranny and oppression. –E. A. Bucchianeri
5. All oppressed people seize whatever weapons they can to fight oppression. –John Lowe
6. The regime of oppression is almost over; its life force is waning, and only its ghost remains. Don’t tarry too long to mourn its effects; celebrate and rejoice in the new. The past is over. Wipe the dirt off your feet. –Marianne Williamson
7. They called the fight for freedom from oppression, ‘terrorism’.
8. Let be gentle with ourselves and each other and fierce as we fight oppression. –Dean Spade
9. I wanted to fight in the Iraq war because I felt like I had an obligation as a human being to help free people from oppression. –Edward Snowden
10. Oppression only lasts for a season. Change the way you fight and the way you think so that you are able to break free and walk out of the situation.

Oppression Quotes by Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the American civil rights movement. Some of oppression quotes by Martin Luther King are listed below to enlighten you with his views and his quotes about oppression. 

1. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. –Martin Luther King
2. Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself. –Martin Luther King Jr.
3. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. Often the oppressor goes along unaware of the evil involved in his oppression so long as the oppressed accepts it. –Martin Luther King Jr.
5. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. –Martin Luther King Jr.
6. The oppressed must never allow the conscience of the oppressor to slumber. Religion reminds every man that he is his brother’s keeper. –Martin Luther King 
7. There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. A few years ago in the slum areas of Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing almost daily: “Been down so long that down don’t bother me.” This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that often engulfs the life of the oppressed. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
8. Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. –Martin Luther King, Jr.
9. You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression. –Martin Luther King Jr.
10. Oppressed people deal with their oppression in three characteristic ways. One way is acquiescence: the oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression and thereby become conditioned to it. In every movement toward freedom some of the oppressed prefer to remain oppressed. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

More Oppression Quotes and Sayings

This section of oppression quotes claims oppression of any sort is never justified and it never will be. The list below underlines the fact that when one person takes a stand against oppression others gather the courage and feel obliged to do it as well. Listed oppression sayings will enlighten about its power.    

1. The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. –Karl Marx
2. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. –Robert Kennedy
3. Oppression is wrong regardless of species. Freedom is the right to live as we wish. –Epictetus
4. It’s worth pointing out that conflicts between racially oppressed people often result from the fact that colonialism worked on divide and rule. Certain ethnic, religious, racial or indigenous groups were deliberately privileged over others in order to create a sense of investment in upholding the power structure. –Ash Sarkar
5. If you see oppression of the poor and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded. –King Solomon
6. If you’re calling for an end to unrest, but not calling out police brutality, not calling for health care as a human right, not calling for an end to housing discrimination, all you’re asking for is the continuation of quiet oppression. –Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
7. Oppression is more easily endured than insult. –Mark Boone Junior
8. No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority. –Joseph Addison
9. He who allows oppression shares the crime. –Desiderius Erasmus
10. When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand. –Jimmy Carter

Final Thoughts on Oppression Quotes

Oppression undermines the fact how filthy our mindset is. It shames us for being judgmental for the most trivial of things that are completely harmless and can be tolerated. These oppression quotes mirror the fact that change begins from within and acceptance is the key to eliminate oppression from the earth that equally belong to every individual despite of their gender as mentioned above in the female oppression quotes, cast or creed. 

I hope you learn and imply a little from these mentioned oppression quotes. The purpose of the article is to bring about a positive difference in our society and make it free from naming and shaming others and their traditions. Moreover, acceptance is the key so we should accept others the way they are as we expect others to accept us my all means.    

We wholeheartedly appreciate your part in circulating a few of these quotes about oppression around you so we can step ahead on the path of betterment and prosperity.