Lucy E. Parsons Quotes

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

Power Concedes Nothing

In the South, people in power feel they don't have to answer to no one.

I believe that movements to suppress wrongs can be carried out under the protection of our flag.

Without democracy there is no freedom. Violence, no matter who is using it, is always reactionary.

Awareness in our society has flipped all types of injustice on its head.

Government and culture are two diametrically opposed forces - the one blinds and oppresses, the other uplifts and unites.

After the revolution, let us hope, prisons simply would not exist - if by prisons we mean places that could be experienced by the men and women in them at all as every place that goes by that name now is bound to be experienced.

The great are only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise!

The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.

A heavy aristocracy and corruption are two bridles in the mouths of a people which will prevent them from making any effectual efforts against their masters.

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence.

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

Where freedom is real, equality is the passion of the masses. Where equality is real, freedom is the passion of a small minority.

The concessions of the privileged to the unprivileged are so seldom brought about by any better motive than the power of the unprivileged to extort them

Social change can be painful for all involved—oppressor and oppressed.

Every organism, every human being, must conquer or serve.

The struggle for human rights and democracy are not always the same thing. Sometimes what you have to do is break cultural attitudes. Democracies aren’t necessarily very good at that…. It’s very hard for oppressed minorities to be given their due.

When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.

… all the baggage of a paternalistic society will have to be thrown overboard.

The good government of one man is the bad government of another

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom - along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

The Achilles' heel of the left has been its dependence on menace for power. Think of all the things it can ask for in the name of fighting menaces like 'systemic racism' and 'structural inequality.'

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That's not going to happen if you care only about yourself.