I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision. . . is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive.
BARBARA DEMINGAll prisons that have existed in our society to date put people away as no human being should ever be put away.
More Barbara Deming Quotes
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The injunction that we should love our neighbors as ourselves means to us equally that we should love ourselves as we love our neighbors.
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Vengeance is not the point: change is.
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The point is to change one’s life. The point is not to give some vent to the emotions that have been destroying one; the point is so to act that one can master them now.
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All prisons that have existed in our society to date put people away as no human being should ever be put away.
BARBARA DEMING -
There should be no censorship of mail.
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Let me be really here, here in this place and this time where I am.
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The longer we listen to one another – with real attention – the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.
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We cannot live without our lives
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Think first of the action that is right to take, think later about coping with one’s fears.
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Our task, of course, is to transmute the anger that is affliction into the anger that is determination to bring about change. I think, in fact, that one could give that as a definition of revolution.
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Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences.
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Gandhi once declared that it was his wife who unwittingly taught him the effectiveness of nonviolence. Who better than women should know that battles can be won without resort to physical strength? Who better than we should know all the power that resides in noncooperation?
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I learned always to trust my own deep sense of what I should do, and not just obediently trust the judgment of others – even others better than I am.
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This is the heart of my argument: We can put more pressure on the antagonist for whom we show human concern.
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A great many of us must move from words to acts – from words of dissent to acts of disobedience.
BARBARA DEMING






