Parker Palmer Quotes

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

No one can live under degradation.

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.

Fear is the greatest form of oppression. The best way to rise up in protest is to live your life to its fullest!

I am not yet born; O fill me with strength against those who would freeze my humanity.

There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.

In that first blow to the deaf walls of those who have everything, the blood of our people, our blood, ran generously to wash away injustice. To live, we die. Our dead once again walked the way of truth. Our hope was fertilized with mud and blood.

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

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

An oppressed people will always rise.

When people rise, they must have a goal worthy of them. Must paltry goods be of concern to them?... The people must rise up not to collect sugar, but to bring down the tyrants.

If you are going to organize and ask for commitment, you cannot go to the most desperately poor. They are not likely to take action. If you stand on a man's head and push it into the dirt, he may not even see the heel of your boot. But if his whole face is already above ground, he can see your heel and he can see freedom ahead.

It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

The main fight of Frelimo is against human exploitation.

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

MLK, Jr. taught me how to say no to segregation, and I can hear him saying now... when you straighten up your back, no man can ride you. He said stand up straight and say no to racial discrimination.

At the moment of greatest love, there is greatest fear, and at the moment of enormous repression, there is resistance, and therefore a chance at revolutionary change.

I believe that truth is one of the most powerful tools we possess against victimization, exploitation, and fear.

After you get your freedom, your enemy will respect you.

The only reason I can hold up my head is because when He set me free He gave me my dignity back.

You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

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.

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

I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.