George Ayittey Quotes

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

I have lectured at the U.N. and travelled widely, giving lectures on human rights and gender inequalities in universities. But this is a life I do not wish to live. I don't want to be a showcase, I want to be in a battlefield where I can stand beside the oppressed and the poor.

No people will be truly free until all are free.

I want to be the voice and the vision for the poor and the powerless.

I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.

Wars are bred by poverty and oppression. Continued peace is possible only in a relatively free and prosperous world.

Let us never allow ourselves to think that poverty is an excuse for an invitation to totalitarianism, and if we should be tempted to think as much, let us remind ourselves that totalitarianism not only extinguishes liberty but institutionalises poverty as well

The cry of the Have-Nots has never been "give us our hearts," but always "get off our backs"; they ask not for love but for breathing space.

When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises.

Those who know the normal life of the poor... will realize well enough that without economic security, liberty is not worth having.

I'm not going to sit around and be peace and love with somebody's boot on my neck.

Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman.

Speaking out is important for me because everyone should be treated equally.

For as long as I can remember, I've always been interested in issues of social justice, political freedom, and civil rights.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what's happening in Africa, and if we're honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.

Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don't believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

I have spent all my life advocating on behalf of the poor, oppressed and marginalized. As a social justice and human rights activist, and now as President of the Republic of Malawi, I have a deep appreciation for the challenges of those on the margins of society.

The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and of the oppressed.

Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

No one can live under degradation.

A group oppressed, is a group enslaved ….Whenever a group, a community of people, in unison, feels that it is being oppressed, and that it wants to control its destiny, then that community has a moral right to seek effective redress, or demand to control its own destiny as appropriate

You will be emancipated from tyranny and oppression …

While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.