“Just the same way the challenge has total power on the aggressor side, have total power on the defense side. Don't give the challenge any power on the defense side.”

—  - Goa

Last update March 23, 2022. History

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“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: The Politics of Education (1985), Chapter 10, page 122

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“Nobody is ever involved in an aggressive war; it's always a defensive war -- on both sides.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Interview by Tor Wennerberg, November 1998 http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/199811--.htm.
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999
Context: No individual gets up and says, I'm going to take this because I want it. He'd say, I'm going to take it because it really belongs to me and it would be better for everyone if I had it. It's true of children fighting over toys. And it's true of governments going to war. Nobody is ever involved in an aggressive war; it's always a defensive war -- on both sides.

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“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Source: Malcolm X Speaks (1965), p. 158

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“Any established power system grows decadent over time, if there is nothing with the strength or motivation to challenge it, and if it refuses to challenge itself.”

Nina Kiriki Hoffman (1955) American writer

Source: The Thread That Binds the Bones (1993), Chapter 8 (p. 72)

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“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

As quoted in The Best Liberal Quotes Ever : Why the Left is Right (2004) by William P. Martin, p. 173.

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