Louis MacNeice Quotes

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

If you have security, you can rebel; if you don't, you hold on to any scraps of it that you have.

Death is better than slavery.

People have to liberate themselves, because liberation is not a single act. It's a question of eternal vigilance. Otherwise, you'll just become enslaved by someone else.

Even in the darkest regions, people have discovered their right of freedom.

Movements begin when oppressed people make - and keep remaking - a deeply inward decision to stop consenting to external demands that contradict a critical inner truth, the truth that they are worthy of respect.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

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.

A desire to resist oppression is implanted in the nature of man.

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

If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield and the buckler of pride.

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 most important and brave thing someone can do, I think, in the face of dehumanization, is to continue to assert their humanity.

I get to decide how my body shows up in any space. When I'm walking into a place like the Globes, I want to make it very clear that how I show up is to further the freedom of everybody.

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

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.

Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country.

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom.

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

The oppressed never free themselves - they do not have the necessary strengths.

You'll be free or die!

My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do.

People can dress you the way they want, they can do your makeup the way they want, but they can never take away your voice.

Is anarchism desirable? Well, who does not seek freedom? What man, unless willing to declare himself in bondage, would care to call any control agreeable? Think about it!

The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.