Louis Farrakhan Quotes

Oppression costs the oppressor too much if the oppressed stand up and protest.

I just don't believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.

To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power

Not only was I not born to be a slave; I was not born to hope to become the equal of the slave master.

We're not trying to take power away or rule anybody - we're just trying to get up from under the rulers.

Freedom is never given; it is won.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

Progress is always relative: to the oppressed, it can only be viewed as an all or nothing deal - if oppression continues, even in a modified form, then the system must still be attacked until that injustice is eradicated.

We have been saying "Freedom" for six years. What we are going to start saying now is "Black Power". We have begged the President. We've begged the federal government. That's all we've been doing, begging and begging. From now on, when they ask you what you want, you know what to tell them.

The great appear great to us only because we are on our knees;, LET US RISE!

Don't ask f'r rights. Take thim. An' don't let anny wan give thim to ye. A right that is handed to ye fer nawthin has somethin the matter with it.

Whether a miracle draws me out of here or I have to present myself on a scaffold, liberty and equality will be my first and last words…

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.

What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. ... All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! ... Your interference is doing him positive injury.

We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.

I think racial justice - and addressing the sick and enduring legacy of structural racism - remains one of the greatest challenges of our time, and one that's particularly important for more and more white people to speak up about.

Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.

Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can't go hand in hand, I don't want to go.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

But I can tell you what your folly and injustice will compel us to do. It will compel us to be free from your domination, and more self-reliant than we have been.

Our job is to make people free.

When you're talking about an authority figure oppressing against people, it's the people that hold that authority figure up. If you want to get free of this bondage, then we need to think about ways to free ourselves rather than looking to the oppressors to free us.