“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up.”

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)
Context: There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. A few years ago in the slum areas of Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing almost daily: "Been down so long that down don't bother me." This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that often engulfs the life of the oppressed.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they gi…" by Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Martin Luther King, Jr. 658

American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

Related quotes

“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up. A few years ago in the slum areas of Atlanta, a Negro guitarist used to sing almost daily: "Been down so long that down don't bother me." This is the type of negative freedom and resignation that often engulfs the life of the oppressed.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)

“Fruit trees in this world are ancient and exhausted sticks coming out of poor soil; the people of the village are worn down to their skulls, caricatures of some ultimate grotesque typology of basic human feature types. How is it, then, that in Van Gogh such things as apple trees explode into a hallucinatory surface of color, while his village stereotypes are suddenly and garishly overlaid with hues of red and green?”

Fredric Jameson (1934) American academic

Source: Postmodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), Chapter 1: The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

“Oppressed people deal with their oppression in three characteristic ways. One way is acquiescence: the oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression and thereby become conditioned to it. In every movement toward freedom some of the oppressed prefer to remain oppressed.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Three Ways of Meeting Oppression (1958)

“There are some things worth giving up anything for, even your freedom, and getting rid of your period is definitely one of them.”

Connie Willis (1945) American science fiction writer

Source: Even the Queen: & Other Short Stories

“Now is the time to throw off the yoke, to force renegotiation of oppressive foreign debts”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Afro-Asian Conference (1965)
Context: Now is the time to throw off the yoke, to force renegotiation of oppressive foreign debts, and to force the imperialists to abandon their bases of aggression.

“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)

“Neither the chains of dictatorship nor the fetters of oppression can keep down the forces of freedom for long.”

Angela Merkel (1954) Chancellor of Germany

Remarks by President Obama and Chancellor Merkel in an Exchange of Toasts on June 07, 2011. http://www.newsroomamerica.com/story/137358/remarks_by_president_obama_and_chancellor_merkel_in_an_exchange_of_toasts.html
Context: We see that living in freedom and defending freedom are two sides of one and the same coin, for the precious gift of freedom doesn’t come naturally, but has to be fought for, nurtured, and defended time and time again. Sometimes this may seem like an endless fight against windmills. But you see, my personal experience is a quite different one. What we dare not dream of today may well become reality tomorrow. Neither the chains of dictatorship nor the fetters of oppression can keep down the forces of freedom for long.

“O what mighty Delusion, do you, who are the powers of England live in! That while you pretend to throw down that Norman yoke, and Babylonish power, and have promised to make the groaning people of England a Free People; yet you still lift up that Norman yoke, and slavish Tyranny, and holds the People as much in bondage, as the Bastard Conquerour himself, and his Councel of War.”

Gerrard Winstanley (1609–1676) English Protestant religious reformer, political philosopher, and activist

The True Levellers Standard Advanced (1649)

“What a pelisse! It's tawny brown with an old gold lining – staggering. It will make a wonderful background for some things I'm thinking of doing. Promise that when it's worn out you'll give it to me”

Edouard Manet (1832–1883) French painter

Méry promised!
quote of Manet, c. 1881; as cited in The private lives of the Impressionists, Sue Roe; Harpen Collins Publishers, New York 2006, p. 232
Méry Laurent was posing for Manet's painting 'Autumn', one work of Manet's series of the seasons, he painted in 1881 – she had ordered the pelisse from Worth for that posing]
1876 - 1883

“Master and slave wear the yoke together. Anarchy is the only true freedom.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 1, “Areoformation” (p. 35)

“There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Martin Luther King, Jr. 658

Related quotes

Related topics