Sayings about Slaves
Proverbs about Slavery
The slave must be content with the joys of his master. ~ Arabian Proverb
Even the devil slaves for the fortunate. ~ Nepalese Proverbs
Seven days king, seven days minister, slave for the rest of your life. ~ Arabian Proverb
Rather be a slave to a rich man than the spouse of a poor man. ~ Indian Proverbs
Work like a slave and eat like a gentleman. ~ Albanian Proverbs
Your five year old son is your instructor; at ten your slave; at fifteen your equal and after that either friend or foe. ~ Turkish Proverbs
The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out. ~ Egyptian Proverbs
Better to be a poor woman than the slave of the rich. ~ Swedish Proverbs
If you call a lady a slave, she laughs, but if you call a slave a slave, he cries. ~ Indian Proverb
For the first five years of your son’s life treat him as a prince, for the next ten years as a slave, then as a friend for the rest of his life. ~ Indian Proverb
A slave does not choose his master. ~ Ghanaian Proverbs
Better in the grave than be a slave. ~ Korean Proverbs
He who is a slave of truth is a free man. ~ Arabian Proverb
Masters who sacrifice for servants will receive the gift of loyalty. ~ Traditional Proverb
A man’s servant can live for a hundred years; the slave of a woman dies in six months. ~ Iranian Proverbs
Who has many servants has many thieves. ~ Dutch Proverbs
Benefits make a man a slave. ~ Traditional Proverb
A sword in the hands of a drunken slave is less dangerous than science in the hands of the unscrupulous. ~ Iranian Proverb
When the master hurts his foot the servants limp. ~ Danish Proverbs
He who carries too much tenderness will become a slave. ~ Myanmar Proverb
It is better to be a free man in a small house than a slave in a big one. ~ Norwegian Proverbs
The master of the people is their servant. ~ Yemeni Proverbs
The person who has been a slave from birth does not value rebellion. ~ Yoruba Proverb
The most difficult master is the servant who became master. ~ Turkish Proverb
Master and servant — both have the same body odor. ~ Tibetan Proverbs
Poverty is slavery. ~ Somali Proverbs
Rather free in a foreign place than a slave back home. ~ Norwegian Proverb
Fire is a good slave, but a bad master. ~ Albanian Proverb
Better a wise man’s servant than an idiot’s master. ~ Vietnamese Proverbs
When a slave mounts a camel he wants to ride on both humps. ~ Egyptian Proverb
Hunger is felt by a slave and hunger is felt by a king. ~ Ghanaian Proverb
When the heart acts the body is its slave. ~ African Proverb
You are still a slave if only your limbs are free. ~ German Proverbs
If the lady of the house breaks something it is an unfortunate accident; if the servant does, then it is a terrible disaster. ~ Turkish Proverb
The gardener who loves roses is slave to a thousand thorns. ~ Turkish Proverb
Better be an old man’s darling than a young man’s slave. ~ Traditional Proverb
The mistress is queen, the wife is the slave. ~ Portuguese Proverbs
If something happens to the master the servants will get his share too. ~ German Proverb
Call someone your lord and he’ll sell you in the slave market. ~ Saudi Arabian Proverb
Voluntary work is better than slavery. ~ Nigerian Proverbs
Give a servant a proper meal and the cow will give more milk and the cat will drink less. ~ Swedish Proverb
As the master sleeps, the servant dreams. ~ Swedish Proverb
He who works as a slave, eats as a king. ~ Indian Proverb
A slave has no choice. ~ Kenyan Proverbs
When the master has a cold the servants sneeze. ~ Polish Proverbs
Quotations about Slavery
~ Marie Leszczynska
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Slavery is so vile and miserable an Estate of Man, and so directly opposite to the generous Temper and Courage of our Nation; that ’tis hardly to be conceived, that an Englishman, much less a Gentleman, should plead for’t. ~ John Locke
Englishmen never will be slaves: they are free to do whatever the Government and public opinion allow them to do. ~ George Bernard Shaw Quotes
If Negro freedom is taken away, or that of any minority group, the freedom of all the people is taken away. ~ Paul Robeson
Today the large organization is lord and master, and most of its employees have been desensitized, much as were the medieval peasants who never knew they were serfs. ~ Ralph Nader
Slavery tolerates no freedom of the press, no freedom of speech, no freedom of opinion. ~ Hinton Rowan Helper
Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! ~ Patrick Henry
Man puts manacles on his fellow-man; God never. ~ Aristophanes
Another of my wishes is to depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves. ~ James Madison
A slave is but half a man. ~ Aristophanes
Slavery is the first step towards civilization. In order to develop it is necessary that things should be much better for some and much worse for others, then those who are better off can develop at the expense of others. ~ Alexander Herzen
In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free,–honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. ~ Abraham Lincoln
As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. ~ Martin Luther King Quotes
Enslave a man and you destroy his ambition, his enterprise, his capacity. In the constitution of human nature, the desire of bettering one’s condition is the mainspring of effort. The first touch of slavery snaps this spring. ~ Horace Mann
Slavery is an institution for converting men into monkeys.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.~ John Ruskin
Slavery is also as ancient as war, and was as human nature. ~ Voltaire Quotes
The worst thing about slavery is that the slaves eventually get to like it. ~ Aristotle Quotes
Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil. ~ Edmund Burke
The man who gives me employment, which I must have or suffer, that man is my master, let me call him what I will. ~ Henry George
The slave power dares anything, and it can be conquered only by the united masses of the people. From Congress to the people, I appeal. ~ Charles Sumner
Our opinions agree as to the evil, moral, political, and economical, of slavery. ~ James Madison
Where Slavery is there Liberty cannot be; and where Liberty is there Slavery can be. ~ Charles Sumner
It is the mind of man alone that is the cause of his bondage or freedom. ~ Chanakya
Captivity is the greatest of all evils that can befall one. ~ Miguel De Cervantes
The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour. ~ Bertrand Russell
Nothing in the world is lawless except a slave. ~ A.W. Hare and J.C. Hare
It would seem that man was born a slave, and that slavery is his natural condition. At the same time nothing on earth can stop man from feeling himself born for liberty. Never, whatever may happen, can he accept servitude; for he is a thinking creature. ~ Simone Weil
Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition. ~ John Ruskin
When you believe, or are led to believe, you are unable to act upon the greatest desires of the soul, the result is mental and spiritual enslavement. ~ Iyanla Vanzant
The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings.~ Thomas La Mance
If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. ~ Abraham Lincoln
This is a world of compensations, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, they cannot long retain it. ~ Abraham Lincoln
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work. ~ Frederick Douglass
While it is true that an inherently free and scrupulous person may be destroyed, such an individual can never be enslaved or used as a blind tool. ~ Albert Einstein Quotes
Most people seek after what they do not possess and are enslaved by the very things they want to acquire. ~ Anwar El-Sadat
Willingly no one chooses the yoke of slavery. ~ Aeschylus
Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee
Anytime anyone is enslaved, or in any way deprived of his liberty, if that person is a human being, as far as I am concerned he is justified to resort to whatever methods necessary to bring about his liberty again. ~ Malcolm X
By the Law of Slavery, man, created in the image of God, is divested of the human character, and declared to be a mere chattel. ~ Charles Sumner
I do not see how a barbarous community and a civilized community can constitute a state. I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
No slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man. ~ Thomas Henry Huxley
Slavery is the parent of ignorance, and ignorance begets a whole brood of follies and vices; and every one of these is inevitably hostile to literary culture. ~ Hinton Rowan Helper
When we acknowledge the kingdom of the self, we will no longer accept slavery either for ourselves or for others, no matter how it is disguised. ~ Gerry L. Spence
Hatred, slavery’s inevitable aftermath. ~ José Julián Martí
Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man’s nature — opposition to it on his love of justice. ~ Abraham Lincoln Quotes
Slaves lose everything in their chains, even the desire of escaping from them.~ Jean Jacques Rousseau
If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.~ Wayne Dyer
Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.~ Vincent Van Gogh
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. ~ George Orwell
He is sometimes slave who should be master; and sometimes master who should be slave. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Not the Christian religion only, but nature herself, cries out against the state of slavery. ~ Leo X
We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution. ~ Victor Hugo Quotes
The man born and bred a slave, even if freed, never loses wholly the feeling or manner of a slave. ~ Mary Clemmer Ames
The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master. ~ Diogenes of Sinope
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. ~ Lysander Spooner
Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it by being a slave himself. ~ Abraham Lincoln Quotes
No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. ~ Frederick Douglass
A slave has only one master; an enterprising man has as many masters as there are people who may serve useful in bettering his position. ~ Jean De La Bruyere
The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends. ~ Oscar Wilde Quotes
I cannot be fired. Slaves have to be sold. ~ Author Unknown
Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. ~ Vincent Van Gogh
Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca
Slavery can only be abolished by raising the character of the people who compose the nation; and that can be done only by showing them a higher one. ~ Maria Weston Chapman
There is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery. ~ George Washington
Slavery is theft — theft of a life, theft of work, theft of any property or produce, theft even of the children a slave might have borne. ~ Kevin Bales
Corrupted freemen are the worst of slaves. ~ David Garrick
