#Exploitation Quotes

“Take you me for a sponge?”

“Tis not a year or two shows us a man:They are all but stomachs, and we all but food;They eat us hungerly, and when they are fullThey belch us.”

“When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will”

“Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.”

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.”

“No man will labor for himself who can make another labor for him.”

“People who think that they are being 'exploited' should ask themselves whether they would be missed if they left, or whether people would say: 'Good riddance?'”

“Certain rich men, whose lives are evil and corrupt, are the representatives of predatory wealth accumulated by all forms of inequity, from the oppression of wage workers to unfair methods of crushing out competition.”

“In war," answered the weaver, "the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time, and the faces of those we love become hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free.”

“The greatest menace to the world today is the growing, exploiting, irresponsible imperialism.”

“Let those possess the land, and only those,Who love it with a love so strong and stupidThat they may be abused and taken advantage ofAnd made fun of by business, law, and art.”

“Our non-co-operation is with the system the English have established in India, with the material civilization and its attendant greed and exploitation of the weak.”

“The cottage industry of India had to perish in order that Lancashire might flourish.”

“You see yourself as a good product that sits on a shelf and sells well, and people make a lot of money out of you.”

“It took a long time to understand why people were so interested in me, but I assumed it was because my wonderful husband had done a lot of wonderful work leading up to our marriage and our relationship. But then, over the years, you see yourself as a good product that sits on a shelf and sells well. People make a lot of money out of you.”

“How meanly and grossly do we deal with nature!”

“Capital exploits the labour of a few to multiply itself.”

“The public hungers to see talented young people kill themselves.”

“An India free from exploitation from within and without must prosper with astonishing rapidity.”

“India will not be a helpless partner in her own exploitation and foreign domination.”

“Exploitation of the poor can be extinguished not by effecting the destruction of a few millionaires, but by removing the ignorance of the poor and teaching them to non-cooperate with their exploiters.”

“We want freedom for our country, but not at the expense or exploitation of others, not so as to degrade other countries.”

“I call the Lancashire trade immoral, because it was raised and is sustained on the ruin of millions of India's peasants.”

“Men soon get tired of shedding their blood for the advantage of a few individuals, who think they amply reward the soldiers perils with the treasures they amass.”

“It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity; how many planets will a country like India require?”

“Employers ganging up against workers is like raising an army of elephants against ants.”

“I am not fighting machinery as such, but the madness of thinking that machinery saves labor. Men save labor until thousands of them are without work and die of hunger on the streets. I want to secure employment and livelihood not only to part of the human race, but for all. I will not have the enrichment of a few at the expense of the community. At present the machine is helping a small minority to live on the exploitation of the masses. The motive force of this minority is not humanity or love of their kind, but greed and avarice.”

“Everybody in boxing probably makes out well except for the fighter.”

“Some people try to get you out of slavery for you to be their slave.”

“No man should so act as to make a gain out of the ignorance of another.”

“We in the West must bear in mind that the poor countries are poor primarily because we have exploited them through political or economic colonialism.”

“A nonviolent occupation is that occupation which is fundamentally free from violence and which involves no exploitation or envy of others.”

“Only in this form of separation the black man is exploited. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that we should be separate, all right, but in this separate state or separate existence, the black man should be given the opportunity and the incentive to do for himself what the white man has done for himself.”

“That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky, without contributing any value to society! And that is called enterprise! I know of no more startling development of the immorality of trade, and all the common modes of getting a living.”

“I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin.”

“We have a common enemy. We have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And what we have foremost in common is that enemy - the white man. He's an enemy to all of us. I know some of you all think that some of them aren't enemies. Time will tell.”

“The black man in North America was economically sick and that was evident in one simple fact: as a consumer, he got less than his share, and as a producer gave least. The black American today shows us the perfect parasite image - the black tick under the delusion that he is progressing because he rides on the udder of the fat, three-stomached cow that is white America.”

“Britain's success in the exploitation of non-European races raised the ambition of Bismarck and later Mussolini and others.”

“It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a radical conflict of black against white or as a purely American problem. Rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.”

“[People] earn extra money [in prison] selling contraband, dope, and things of that sort to the inmates, and so that really it's an exploiter.”

“The commerce between India and Africa will be of ideas and services, not of the manufactured goods against raw materials after the fashion of the Western exploiters.”

“America is subsidizing what is left of the prestige and strength of the once mighty Britain. The sun has set forever on that monocled, pith-helmeted resident colonialist, sipping tea with his delicate lady in the non-white colonies being systematically robbed of every valuable resource. Britain's superfluous royalty and nobility now exist by charging tourists to inspect the once baronial castles, and by selling memoirs, perfumes, autographs, titles, and even themselves.”

“The only time the white man is brotherly toward you is when he can use you, when he can exploit you, when he will oppress you, when you will submit to him.”

“The man was a deceiver. He was deceitful and I will never bite my tongue in saying that. I don't think he was anything but a politician, and he used Negroes to get elected and to get votes.”

“What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells?”

“If Africa wasn't beautiful the white man wouldn't want it.”

“You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.”

“The Negro fought and bled and died in every war the white man waged, and he still won't give you justice. You nursed his baby and cleaned behind his wife, and he still won't give you freedom; you turned the other cheek while he lynched you and raped your women, but he still won't give you equality.”

“He who before was the money owner, now strides in front as capitalist; the possessor of labor-power follows as his laborer. The one with an air of importance, smirking, intent on business; the other hesitant, like one who is bringing his own hide to market and has nothing to expect but a hiding.”

“In proportion therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases.”