Joseph Stalin
Politician, Revolutionary
"Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege."
Abuse quotes
Abuse
705 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Oscar Romero
Archbishop, Activist
"There is no dichotomy between man and God's image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being, abuses God's image."
Leon Trotsky
Revolutionary, Politician
"Everyone has a right to be stupid, but Comrade MacDonald abuses the privilege."
Bryan Stevenson
Lawyer, Author
"Whenever society begins to create policies and laws rooted in fear and anger, there will be abuse and injustice."
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Politician, Philosopher, Orator
"When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff."
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Abuse quotes (page 1 of 36)
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"We have freedom to do good or evil; yet to make choice of evil, is not to use, but to abuse our freedom."
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"If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding."
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"Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research."
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"Had the Senate or House, or both, censured or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy of Watergate might have been prevented. Hopefully the Senate will not sit by while even more serious abuses unfold before it."
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"An aggressive drug-testing program would cut down on certain abuses, but its never going to catch everyone - or even close to everyone."
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"To destroy abuses is not enough; Habits must also be changed. The windmill has gone, but the wind is still there." ~old man G--- to Monseigneur Bienvenu Myriel"
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"I dread our own power, and our own ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded... We may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing, and hitherto unheard-of-power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin."
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"In Holland I have seen well-meaning, principled people blinded by multiculturalism, overwhelmed by the imperative to be sensitive and respectful of immigrant culture, while ignoring criminal abuse of women and girls."
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"... you don't have to wait for someone to treat you bad repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with it that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future."
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"Even child abuse specialists do not routinely screen for domestic violence. This shows how much more education we need to do, even among experts, to understand the known links between violence of the child and the parent."
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"The withdrawal of a State from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic. The government of the State remains unchanged as to all internal affairs. It is only its external or confederate relations that are altered. To term this action of a Sovereign a 'rebellion' is a gross abuse of language."
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"When someone abuses me I can defend myself, but against praise I am defenceless."
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"Information is power. Disinformation is abuse of power."
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"Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story."
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"What is it in absinthe that makes it a separate cult? The effects of its abuse are totally distinct from those of other stimulants. Even in ruin and in degradation it remains a thing apart: its victims wear a ghastly aureole all their own, and in their peculiar hell yet gloat with a sinister perversion of pride that they are not as other men."
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"Child abuse damages a person for life and that damage is in no way diminished by the ignorance of the perpetrator. It is only with the uncovering of the complete truth as it affects all those involved that a genuinely viable solution can be found to the dangers of child abuse."
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"When silence or tricks of language contribute to maintaining an abuse that must be reformed or a suffering that can be relieved, then there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak."
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"Evil comes from the ABUSE of free will"
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"Where it is permissible both to die and not to die, it is an abuse of valour to die."
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"There is nothing everyone is so afraid of as being told how vastly much he is capable of. You are capable of - do you want to know? - you are capable of living in poverty; you are capable of standing almost any kind of maltreatment, abuse, etc. But you do not wish to know about it, isn't that so? You would be furious with him who told you so, and only call that person your friend who bolsters you in saying: 'No, this I cannot bear, this is beyond my strength, etc."
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