John W. Vessey Jr. Quotes

Writing in the voice of an American slave felt like I was biting off something very large.

If we open our history books, we shall see that the laws, for all that they are or should be contracts amongst free men, have rarely been anything but the tools of the passions of a few men or the offspring of a fleeting and haphazard necessity.

In the South they don't mind how close I get, so long as I don't get too big. In the North they don't mind how big I get, so long as I don't get too close.

There is not a respectable system of civilization known to history whose foundations were not laid in the institution of domestic slavery.

Not a single problem of the class struggle has ever been solved in history except by violence.

The premise for me has always been that it's vulnerable people who do violent things. And the more vulnerable they feel, often, the more violent they are. But I think, you know, that's an idea that comes from history, from classical theater, for me.

The forces that precipitate the vicious cycle of conflict on this planet do not pledge allegiance to either the left or the right or the center. They take advantage of everyone.

In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together.

Anyone who clings to the historically untrue and thoroughly immoral doctrine that violence never solves anything, I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The Ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more disputes in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.

It is necessary to be very intelligent in the work of oppression.

We have reached a crises in the history of this country when no man, however humble his rank or limited his influence, has a right to stand neutral..

Revolution by the have-nots has a way of inducing a moral revelation among the haves.

In rivers and bad governments, the lightest things swim to the top

Many will equate words with violence, claiming that harsh criticism and invective are akin to physical abuse. According to this view, violence may be inflicted upon a person merely by offending them. Anyone who claims to believe this, despite never having experienced actual fist-in-their-face, gun-at-their-back, war-in-their-streets physical violence, may need to check their privilege. … if we tear down the distinction between words and violence, then why not simply use violence to solve our problems as a first rather than a last resort?

I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel - it's vulgar.

I'm all for philosophical debates about race, but if you look at history, you see that the status quo has power when it's unchallenged. So these conversations about inequality are crucial.

I think 'Humans' is more about provoking the idea that there is a class of beings in society that we treat as less than... as subordinates; people who we treat badly and take for granted. Often they are the same people who work hard to keep the city going. We need to think about that.

I don't believe that the meek will inherit the earth; The meek get ignored and trampled.

The problem in the world is the oppression of man by man; it this which threatens existence.

I was brought up with a very strong value that you should always protect the small and the few against those who want to misuse their muscle and weight in order to get what they weren't supposed to.

I like movies that project a dilemma of modern men and women who are overwhelmed by the system.

It is always the right of the mighty which prevails over the weak, and that is very primitive.

Tradition has it that whenever a group of people has tasted the lovely fruits of wealth, security, and prestige, it begins to find it more comfortable to believe in the obvious lie and accept that it alone is entitled to privilege.

I think history repeats itself. There's a constant conversation between the oppressed and the oppressor. No matter what your field is, whether it's gender equality, the Time's Up movement, or diversity casting, it's always going to be a back-and-forth battle.

The Achilles' heel of the left has been its dependence on menace for power. Think of all the things it can ask for in the name of fighting menaces like 'systemic racism' and 'structural inequality.'