“Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility.”

It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.

Mystery is never more than a mirage that vanishes as we draw near to look at it.

A man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is a man.

That’s what I consider true generosity: You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing.

Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female — whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.

Today, however, we are having a hard time living because we are so bent on outwitting death.

He reflected. ‘I know a lot of different kids of people; what I want is to show each of them how the others really are. You hear so many lies!

It is dreadful to think that behind me my own past is no longer anything but shifting darkness.

Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it.

Death itself does not frighten me; it is the jump I am afraid of.

The body is not a thing, it is a situation: it is our grasp on the world and our sketch of our project.

Every war, every revolution, demands the sacrifice of a generation, of a collectivity, by those who undertake it.

That the child is the supreme aim of woman is a statement having precisely the value of an advertising slogan.

Youth and what the Italians so prettily call stamina. The vigor, the fire, that enables you to love and create. When you’ve lost that, you’ve lost everything.

You said something very true the other day: that for us, nudity begins with the face.

But it is impossible for anyone to say ‘I am sacrificing myself’ without feeling bitterness.

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

If our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, the hungry, we are guilty of heresy.

If you advise someone on the condition that they have to accept it, then you are an oppressor.

Jesus reveals a God who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but who heals; who does not condemn but forgives.

We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

Choosing our own aims and seeking to bring them to fruition creates a sense of vitality and motivation in life. The only things that derail our efforts are fear and oppression.

We Negro writers, just by being black, have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.

If writers just sit and talk about oppression, they are not going to do much writing.