Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine Quotes

Treat them as a nation and they will act as a free people generally do—generously. Call them a faction, and they become factious.

If a democracy is to remain real and stable, the majority must be humane and farsighted enough to take care of minorities who have serious objections to the majorities point of view and who, because of lack of numbers, do not have the political strength to impose their own policy solutions through their own political power.

We're seeking sovereignty because it is absolutely essential, like the ripening of the fruit, like reaching adulthood, like the opening of river into the ocean. It is necessary because we are a people.

The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians; their lands and properties shall never be taken from them without their consent.

The democratic option is the only alternative to solving the Kurdish question. Separation is neither possible nor necessary. We want peace, dialogue, and free political action within the framework of a democratic Turkish state.

There are lots of nations in the world or national peoples who don't yet have states. They're inside someone else's state and they want a state of their own.

We lost the American colonies because we lacked the statesmanship to know the right time and the manner of yielding what is impossible to keep.

I think that white women are more apt to read laterally. So I think there's some strong identification for women, and their political and social positions, and minorities. I think that the political power of, let's say, the average Indian man and a white woman are pretty equal.

I've always said to my men friends, If you really care for me, darling, you will give me territory. Give me land, give me land.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

Let there be freedom for the Indians, wherever they may be in the American Continent or elsewhere in the world, because while they are alive, a glow of hope will be alive as well as a true concept of life.

I elect to stay on the soil of which I was born and on the plot of ground which I have fairly bought and honestly paid for. Don't advise me to leave, and don't add insult to injury by telling me it's for my own good; of that I am to be the judge.

I love my man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man.

I disapprove... of the proposal to subject the Indians to our laws without their consent,... It is so little in concord with our principles of government.

We are a nation of minorities. In a nation of minorities, you can’t cherry-pick rights.

When you have people in a geographical area who do not want to be a part of a country, you cannot keep them in that country forever.

Shia leaders prefer to keep Iraq united, as long as they maintain their dominance over it, especially now that they have been portrayed as the majority who suffered injustice and oppression over the years. Hence, the atmospheres have been prepared and charged by the American agents to hand the reins of power to the “Shias” or to hold the lion’s share.

In another century all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us.

The distinct society were asking for is not a society of privileged citizens. Is a society with a different culture, a society with a different legal system, a society with specific institutions.

Sub-national, ethnic or tribal factions cannot expect to undermine the political unit in which they exist while claiming the privileges of a sovereign nation-state.

Feelings of marginalization and cries of separation are symptomatic of countries where rulers find power sweet and intoxicating, where power is coveted, and when acquired, painstakingly guarded.

All societies, including societies called democratic, are ruled by a minority.

[We] must come to understand what it means to be a member of the minority or other small partner people, and to be ready to give that minority assurances which are necessary for a majority..

There will be no annexation of ourselves or our territory to an independent Quebec without our consent.

[Tribal] Sovereignty is just a means to an end. The end is healthy, happy and safe communities.