Mario Puzo Quotes

I used to be a discipline problem, which caused me embarrassment until I realized that being a discipline problem in a racist society is sometimes an honor.

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

Perhaps the greatest consolation of the oppressed is to consider themselves superior to their tyrants.

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

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

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

One of the very basic ideas of Post-Modernism is rejection of arbitrary power structures. Different people are sensitive to different kinds of power structures.

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.

There is no shame in being compelled by force to accept an unjust and undesirable situation. It is shameful to accept such a fact without attempting to prevent it.

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

Don’t play with us. If you’re not going to give us justice, let us go so that we may help ourselves….We can’t want for benevolent white people to give us handouts.

What did you expect? I don’t know why you’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for 300 years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.

I don't believe that the meek will inherit the earth; The meek get ignored and trampled.

My hatred is precious. I don't want to waste it on those who are colluding in their own oppression.

If I were a Negro, I'd be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I'd rather go down with my flag flying. If you're weak or crippled, or you can't speak out or fight back in some way, then people don't hesitate to treat you badly.

I value what I learned from being cast in the margins and what that felt like.

The character of Robin Hood stands for the deep anger of the dispossessed against the ruling classes.

No one can finish my party. Just because they have money power, they think they can finish us off.

Only when the oppressed are heard can we have an honest solutions based dialogue.

Be humble as the blade of grass that is being trodden underneath the feet. The little ant tastes joyously the sweetness of honey and sugar. The mighty elephant trembles in pain under the agony of sharp goad

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.

We will have taken one giant step forward when we face this reality: Powerful people never teach powerless people how to take their power away from them.

The struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the apparent overwhelming power of those who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, courage, patience.

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.

Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying "Enough!" He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable - this is Marcos.