I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed... I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own.
Paul RobesonRead
The intolerance of the few, or the risk of it, carries the day against the wider humanity of the many.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Intolerance from a small group can overshadow the values of the larger community.
This quote by Paul Robeson highlights how the negative behaviors and attitudes of a minority can significantly impact society, often overpowering the more humane and compassionate values held by the majority. It serves as a reminder of the importance of vigilance against intolerance, which can undermine collective progress towards a more inclusive and humane community.
Themes
IntoleranceHumanityCommunitySocietyValues
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a speech addressing social justice issues.
More from Paul Robeson
All quotes βWe ask for nothing that is not ours by right, and herein lies the great moral power of our demand.
Paul RobesonRead
My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave.
Paul RobesonRead
I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom
Paul RobesonRead
And at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists.
Paul RobesonRead
Art is not just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.
Paul RobesonRead
Similar quotes
Women do not want power over men, they want power over themselves.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
The subjects I wanted to write about - the mystery of the human soul, evil - didn't interest newspapers, and news reporting bored me.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge.
Toni MorrisonRead
If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse.
George CarlinRead
my mind is a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and taste and smell and hearing and sight keep hitting and chipping with sharp fatal tools in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of chrome and ex -ecute strides of cobalt nevertheless i feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming something a little different, in fact myself hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet bellowings
E. E. CummingsRead
The Convention thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.
James MadisonRead