Quotes about privilege (948 quotes, page 10)

“Among the legislative classes embodied into, and constituting the government, we must place the landed aristocracy. In fact, the landed aristocracy and the government are one—the latter being nothing more than the organized means of preserving the power and privileges of the former.”

Thomas Hodgskin (1787–1869) British writer

Source: The Natural and Artificial Right of Property Contrasted (1832), p. 51

“The ‘pretty privilege’ can give you access to spaces, just like your able body gives you access. But it makes impossible beauty standards for many other trans girls who are struggling with that right now.”

Janet Mock (1983) American writer, director, producer, TV host and transgender rights activist

On the beauty standards still imposed on trans women in “Janet Mock: ‘I’d never seen a young trans woman who was thriving in the world – I was looking for that’” https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/15/janet-mock-id-never-seen-a-young-trans-woman-who-was-thriving-in-the-world-i-was-looking-for-that in The Guardian (2018 Apr 15)

Girl , Beauty , Making love

“I acknowledge the privilege of being alive
In a human body at this moment,
Endowed with senses, memories, emotions, thoughts,
And the space of mind in its wisdom aspect.”

Alex Grey (1953) American artist

Art Psalms (2008), The Vast Expanse

Memory , Wisdom , Sense

“Existential angst is often a disease of privilege. If you're actually being oppressed you have a struggle. You have something to fight for, and therefore a purpose, but for a lot of men their lack of purpose puts them in search of a struggle.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints

Fight , Search , Disease , Men

“Whoever complains about the death of anyone, is complaining that he was a man. Everyone is bound by the same terms: he who is privileged to be born, is destined to die.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCVIX: On Consolation to the Bereaved

Death

“It's boring and immature, like when someone says he wants to watch the world burn. You only get to watch when you have the privilege of not being on fire. It's edgy but it's not the darkness. The darkness is finding a way to laugh about being on fire.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

Source: The Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtj7LDYaufM, published 2019-03-02
ContraPoints

World , Way

“The only true form of freedom, the only ethical form of freedom, is through self-limitation. It is not the privilege of choosing everything you want in your life, but choosing what you will give up in your life.”

Mark Manson book Everything Is Fucked

Self-confidence , Life , Freedom

“The exposure of violence is perceived by the privileged as the origin of violence.”

Sara Ahmed (1969) Australian and British academic

Source: "An Affinity of Hammers" (2016), p. 28

“Veterans create privilege for all those who have not had to serve.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 290

“Pre-eighteenth century economics were governed, not by consumers, who determined what should be produced by what they were willing to buy in a competitive market, but by producers who enjoyed special privileges in return for the most stringent kind of state regulations. Mr. Walter Lippmann, in his book, The Good Society, points out that in the days of Louis XIV the manufacturers of France were told exactly what to produce and exactly how to produce it. Industry and agriculture were governed by codes more complicated than anything ever invented by the NRA or Mr. Wallace.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 66

Books

“One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding between the two communities in South Africa can be removed.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Source: Indian Opinion (1 October 1903)

Hurt , God , Faith , Question

“The new tax bill should improve both the equity and the simplicity of our present tax system. This means the enactment of long-needed tax reforms, a broadening of the tax base and the elimination or modification of many special tax privileges. These steps are not only needed to recover lost revenue and thus make possible a larger cut in present rates; they are also tied directly to our goal of greater growth. For the present patchwork of special provisions and preferences lightens the tax load of some only at the cost of placing a heavier burden on others. It distorts economic judgments and channels an undue amount of energy into efforts to avoid tax liabilities. It makes certain types of less productive activity more profitable than other more valuable undertakings. All this inhibits our growth and efficiency, as well as considerably complicating the work of both the taxpayer and the Internal Revenue Service. These various exclusions and concessions have been justified in part as a means of overcoming oppressively high rates in the upper brackets--and a sharp reduction in those rates, accompanied by base-broadening, loophole-closing measures, would properly make the new rates not only lower but also more widely applicable. Surely this is more equitable on both counts.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1962, Address and Question and Answer Period at the Economic Club of New York

Making love , Parting , Effort

“I have always looked upon the interests of the labouring classes as essentially the most conservative interests of the country. The rights of labour have been to me always as sacred as the rights of property, and I have always thought that those who were most interested in the stability and even in the glory of a State are the great mass of the population, happy to enjoy the privileges of freemen under good laws, and proud at the same time of the country which confers on its inhabitants a name of honour and of glorious reputation in every quarter of the globe.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Speech in Edinburgh (30 October 1867), quoted in The Chancellor of the Exchequer in Scotland; Being Two Speeches Delivered by Him in the City of Edinburgh on 29th and 30th October, 1867 (1867), pp. 36-37

Time , Law , Country , Happiness

“Soon we will have people on Mars, and we truly will be multi-planetary. And the young boy or the young girl who will be going to Mars could be in this audience or listening today. I have wanted to work at JPL on these missions since I was 14 years old and I am privileged to be a part of it. And this is a remarkable time in the space program, and we are all in this journey together. So the next time you think you don't have enough time in your day, just remember, it's all a matter of your Earthly perspective.”

Nagin Cox (1965) NASA scientist

Source: What time is it on Mars? https://www.ted.com/talks/nagin_cox_what_time_is_it_on_mars (November 2016)

Time , Girl , People , Boy

“The pursuit of critical consciousness, the pursuit of social justice through a critical enlightenment, can also be settler moves to innocence - diversions, distractions, which relieve the settler of feelings of guilt or responsibility, and conceal the need to give up land or power or privilege.”

Eve Tuck Indigenous studies scholar

Source: "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor", p. 21

Feeling , Justice

“Late-capitalist retranslation of difference allows hierarchical and material differences in power between people to be erased from consciousness, even when these same economic and social privileges are bolstered.”

Chela Sandoval (1956) Chicana and post-colonial feminist and theoretician

Source: Methodology of the Oppressed (2000), p. 74

People

“Oh—oh, why is it that the members of a family feel privileged to treat one another with a cruelty they would not exhibit to the merest stranger?”

Fannie Hurst (1889–1968) novelist

Lummox (1923)

Family , Feeling

“Everyone less mentally ill than me is Privileged, everyone more mentally ill than me is Toxic, everyone equally mentally ill to me is Cool,”

Dril Twitter user

[ Link to tweet https://twitter.com/dril/status/1333817949623263232]
Tweets by year, 2020

“But one no longer wonders when one realizes that in the higher classes there is an unerring instinct of what tends to maintain and of what tends to destroy the organization by virtue of which they enjoy their privileges. The fashionable lady had certainly not reasoned out that if there were no capitalists and no army to defend them, her husband would have no fortune, and she could not have her entertainments and her ball-dresses. And the artist certainly does not argue that he needs the capitalists and the troops to defend them, so that they may buy his pictures. But instinct, replacing reason in this instance, guides them unerringly. And it is precisely this instinct which leads all men, with few exceptions, to support all the religious, political, and economic institutions which are to their advantage.”

Leo Tolstoy The Kingdom of God Is Within You

Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Chapter XII, Conclusion—Repent Ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

Support , Fashion , Men

“Law and order are the privilege of the poor. So far as they affect the rich they are the restraint of the rich. It is for all those who are interested in the industry and commerce of this country, not for those who are interested merely in fixed capital and the leisurely enjoyment of its fruits, to struggle to maintain the idea of the supremacy of the law.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to the Conference of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Oxford (23 November 1887), quoted in The Times (24 November 1887), p. 7
1880s

Idea , Law , Country

“I believe that any repeal of the Union [with Ireland] or any substantial tampering with it is fraught with danger to this country. That has always been the opinion of the Conservative party and always will remain so. It is granting a separate government and separate executive. ... The result is that the [Protestant] minority will not only have laws passed of which they disapprove, but they will have to depend on the toleration and good will of their enemies for the common privileges of civilised life and securities.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Life , Dependency , Law , Country

“It's organized chaos. Everything is different. You have a sound check—a very thorough sound check—to make sure that everything is worked out so smoothly and then you're in glam, and then you have a small prayer before you hit the stage and it's it's a lot of fun. That's what it's all about. You want to come together and be thankful for having the privilege of getting to do what you love for work.”

Erika Jayne (1969) American singer, actress and television personality

Interview to L'Officiel (2018)

Love , Making love

“Sir, there were other days, when England was the hope of freedom. Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained, or a noble blow was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always turned—to this favourite, this darling home of so much privilege and so much happiness, where the people that had built up a noble edifice for themselves would, it was well known, be ready to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for others. You talk to me of the established tradition and policy in regard to Turkey. I appeal to an established tradition, older, wider, nobler far—a tradition not which disregards British interests, but which teaches you to seek the promotion of those interests in obeying the dictates of honour and of justice.”

William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) British Liberal politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1877/may/07/postponement-of-orders-of-the-day#column_437 in the House of Commons (7 May 1877)
1870s

Home , Justice , Freedom , Happiness

“Why do you think we've had sex segregation over the last hundred years? For a laugh? It is the height of male privilege to intrude into women's spaces and expect women to just love it.”

Graham Linehan (1968) Irish screenwriter

Eddie Izzard is not a woman, 20 December 2020

Sex , Thinking , Love , Making love

“Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours.”

Seneca the Younger book Epistulae morales ad Lucilium

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXIII

“Getting involved is the privilege of those who do not like the habit.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Mettersi in gioco è il privilegio di chi non ama l'abitudine.
Source: prevale.net

“The work of the liturgy transcends us because it is Christ’s work, and it is our privilege to participate. This work is an art, sanctioned by the Church, which is Christ’s Body. In the liturgy we present what He has intended to make lasting for the salvation of mankind until all is consummated.”

Glen Provost (1949) Catholic bishop

Bishop Provost’s Chrism Mass Homily for 2021 http://www.lcdiocese.org/the-diocese/our-bishop/homilies/3150-bishop-provost-s-chrism-mass-homily-for-2021 (31 March 2021)

Art , Christ

“People talk about 'my career,' but 'career' is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt very privileged to be paid for what I love doing.”

Barbara Stanwyck (1907–1990) American actress

As quoted in "Barbara Stanwyck: 'I'm a Tomorrow Woman" by Aljean Harmetz, The New York Times (March 22, 1981), p. A1

People , Love

“One of our national characteristics is not to do things without careful deliberation. Those who are privileged to direct the aspirations of a quarter of the world’s population have a wonderful opportunity but a fearful responsibility.”

Soong Mei-ling (1897–2003) Chiang Kai-shek's wife, First Lady of the Republic of China

China Emergent (May 1942)

World , Fear

“This time can be seen as a time when we are experiencing the birth pains of new civilization... It's not me. It's the power of the inner truth of the story. It's an honor... a privilege.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The State of the World 2010, public lecture in New York City, USA, (July 2010)

Pain , Time , Truth , Birth

“I did not expect that God would act so quickly in my life. Building my relationship with God, I have never envisioned myself as a bishop. To be one is a great privilege and responsibility. From the human perspective, it is a very challenging life.”

Karol Kulczycki (1966) Polish Roman Catholic prelate, working in Australia, who was been bishop of Port Pirie since 2020

Source: Statement from Bishop-Elect Karol Kulczycki SDS https://www.pp.catholic.org.au/__files/d/9824/Statement%20from%20Bishop-Elect%20Karol%20Kulczycki.pdf (1 August 2020)

God , Life

“That will happen... when all of us who are slightly privileged and slightly uneasy begin to see that we are like the guards in the prison uprising at Attica - expendable; that the Establishment, whatever rewards it gives us, will also, if necessary to maintain its control, kill us.”

Howard Zinn book A People's History of the United States

A People's History of the United States (1980), Chapter 24. The Coming Revolt of the Guards

“In life, being determined is a great privilege.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Nella vita, essere determinati è un grande privilegio.
Source: prevale.net

Life

“You know that my ancestors were the most christian emperors of the great nation of Germany, the catholic kings of Spain, the archdukes of Austria, and the dukes of Burgundy, who all were, until death, faithful sons of the Roman Church...I am therefore resolved to maintain everything which these my forebears have established to the present…and to settle this matter I will use all my dominions and possessions, my friends, my body, my blood, my life, and my soul. It would be a disgrace for you and me, the illustrious and renowned nation of Germany, privileged and pre-eminent as protector and defender of the Catholic faith, if heresy, or even just the suspicion of heresy, and the degradation of the Christian religion were to return to the hearts of men in our time to our perpetual dishonour.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Diet of Worms (1521)
Source: *Detlef Ploese and Guenther Vogler, eds., Buch der Reformation. Eine Auswahl zeitgenössischer Zeugnisse (1476-1555). Berlin: Union Verlag, 1989, pp. 245-53

Soul , Life , Death , Men

“Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party — though they are quite numerous — is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters. The essence of political freedom depends not on the fanatics of 'justice', but rather on all the invigorating, beneficial, and detergent effects of dissenters. If 'freedom' becomes 'privilege', the workings of political freedom are broken.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary

Die russische Revolution. Eine kritische Würdigung (1920) p. 109
This contains probably her most famous statement: Freiheit ist immer die Freiheit der Andersdenkenden, translated as "Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters."
Literally: Freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently.

Dependency , Freedom , Justice

“Civilization.…
Like everything else, it has a price. The down payment is freedom. For the privilege of living together, men surrender the right to do as they please; they make laws and restrict themselves within them.
When civilization is conferred from outside, the price is even steeper: someone else makes the laws.”

Jack Williamson book Star Bridge

Source: Star Bridge (1955), “The History,” prelude to Chapter 3, “The Narrow Bridge” (p. 37)

Freedom , Law , Men

“One of the rarest and most important privileges that can happen to a good person is to be loved for who you are.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Uno dei privilegi più rari ed importanti che possa capitare ad una brava persona è di essere amati per ciò che si è.
Source: prevale.net

Personality , Love

“You do not have to be privileged to find your place in the world.”

Jessica Minh Anh (1988) Vietnamese model

Jessica Minh Anh (2015) cited in: " Catwalk of the future! Top model to mix haute couture, thousands of mirrors, a 100-metre runway and DRONES... at the world's first solar-powered fashion show https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3077404/Model-mix-haute-couture-DRONES-thousands-mirrors-100-metre-runway-solar-power-plant-Spain.html" in Daily Mail, 12 May 2015.

World

“[...] one must be cautious in assessing the political significance of the relative freedom from repression — at least for the privileged — in the United States. Exactly what does it mean, concretely?”

Noam Chomsky book Language and Responsibility

Quotes 1950s–1980s, 1970s, Language and Responsibility, Pantheon, 1977

Freedom

“Even if you want no state, or a minimal state, then you still have to argue it point by point. Especially since most minimalists want to keep exactly the economic and police system that keeps them privileged. That’s libertarians for you—anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 7, “What Is to Be Done?” (p. 370)

“The human mind is always inexorable in demanding a motive for all human actions. It is only himself that each man permits to act without one, and avails himself of the privilege with astonishing frequency.”

Jean Ingelow (1820–1897) British writer

Source: Sarah de Berenger: A Novel (1879), Ch. 11, p. 134.

Motivation

“Those who act so officials are nothing in their profession and their personalities are known as valueless privilege.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Personality

“Those who manage to feel good on their own have a great privilege: they are not satisfied with just anyone.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Chi riesce a star bene da solo ha un grande privilegio: non si accontenta di chiunque.
Source: Prevale.net

Feeling

“Spontaneity is the privilege of an authentic person.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: La spontaneità è il privilegio di una persona autentica.
Source: prevale.net

Personality

“Authenticity is the rarest and most important privilege that can belong to a human being.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: L'autenticità è il privilegio più raro ed importante che possa appartenere ad un essere umano.
Source: prevale.net

“Never allow anyone the privilege of seeing you as fragile. There are people ready to help you everywhere and just as many parasites ready to take advantage of your weakness.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Non permettete mai a nessuno il privilegio di vedervi fragili. Ci sono persone pronte ad aiutarvi ovunque ed altrettanti parassiti pronti ad approfittare della vostra debolezza.
Source: prevale.net

Help , People

This quote waiting for review.