Gerrit Smith Quotes

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

At the moment we have a ruling class that has one law and the people the other.

Privilege is the greatest enemy of right.

I think people really need to think what it's like to have all of society arrayed against you.

In poor countries, the rich and powerful crush the poor and powerless.

Why do you all push us around?

Poor men's reasons are not heard.

Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.

Victorian values meant brutalizing people who were often poor.

A suppressing person isn't critical. A suppressing person is a person who denies the rights of others.

The fact that slavery is written into the Constitution is about as entrenched a form of classism as you could possibly imagine.

Eventually, I won the right to attend school, but the prejudice was still there.

It is assumed that the daughters of the poor are for the use of the rich. They assume that we’re their property.

Oppression makes a wise man mad.

The history of most countries has been that of majorities—mounted majorities, clad in iron, armed with death, treading down the tenfold more numerous minorities.

There was no pity take of the poor people, who wrought never no manner of treason, yet they bought it dearer than the great personages, such as had done the evil and trespass

Alas, how many have been persecuted for the wrong of having been right?

Rebellion is the necessary result of injustice. It may not always achieve its purpose, or be intended to do so, but a conviction of injustice endured must precede articulate rebellion. Nor is it always certain that injustice will be followed by rebellion – it would be very much better for the world if this was the case. But where the victims of aggression or custom are ignorant and disunited, the opportunities for reasoned and effective revolt are practically reduced to nothing…

A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.

Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord to the weak.

Today, I see that many of our citizens are not free. They are dependent.

Woman was the first human being that tasted bondage. Woman was a slave before the slave existed.

The poor man looks upon the law as an enemy, not as a friend. For him, the law is always taking something away.

Any time something goes wrong, Republicans pick on women and minorities.

Discrimination will impair democracy.