Daniel Day-Lewis Quotes

The oppressed, having internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines, are fearful of freedom.

Behind the masks of total choice, different forms of the same alienation confront each other.

If repression has indeed been the fundamental link between power, knowledge, and sexuality since the classical age, it stands to reason that we will not be able to free ourselves from it except at a considerable cost.

We put limitations on the way that we think about things, on ourselves, think about all the boxes we live in, male or female, you're this age, that age, this is your job, this is not your job, everything is about getting boxed in.

In society, liberty for one may mean the suppression of liberty for others.

We call ourselves a free nation, and yet we let ourselves be told what cabs we can and can't take by a man at a hotel door, simply because he has a drum major's uniform on.

Society has taught us to suppress certain things and not do certain things.

The real passion of the twentieth century is servitude.

Similarly, the Marquis is presented in this film as someone who would disturb the status quo and therefore must be kept imprisoned.

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.

Oppression is the essence of power.

Physical restraint is an obvious condition, which seems particularly useful in defining freedom, but with respect to important issues, it is a metaphor and not a very good one. People are indeed controlled by fetters, handcuffs, strait jackets, and the walls of jails and concentration camps, but what may be called behavioral control--the restraint imposed by contingencies of reinforcement--is a very different thing.

What is new in our time is the increased power of the authorities to enforce their prejudices.

Anticipatory obedience teaches authorities what is possible and accelerates unfreedom.

I don't know why people like being oppressed.

I would be with those who say the hierarchy in the United States has badly mishandled this whole situation.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

I know L.A. well, but it's a police state.

In contrast, fear societies are societies in which dissent is banned.

Especially in Britain, people want to limit you.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things.

Look at the forces against me. They don't want me out. They're afraid I'll cause trouble if I get out.

Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.

Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid.

What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.