Prisoners

"The ban against me isn’t personal, it’s targeting an entire generation."

"For the past decade, we have protested peacefully...but the government did not lend their ears to our views."

"坦白說，我從不否定中國的經濟發展，但一個如此強大的國家，要將爭取民主的人送入監牢、限制出入境自由，還要求以進入中國大陸參觀愛國展覽作為取回護照的交換條件，這何嘗不是一種脆弱呢。"

"這數年切身感受到，免於恐懼的自由，是多麼可貴的東西。"

"以為舊詩適合於表達某種情感,二十余年來,我恰有此種情感,故發而為詩;詩有時自己形成,不用我做."

"و وباء #كورونا يجتاح العالم مهددا للبشريةندعو مجلس الأمن والأمين العام للأمم المتحدة انتونيو غوتيرش @antoniojuterres لايقاف القوى المعتدية عن عدوانها على الشعب اليمني وفك الحصار عليه فالوباء ينتشر بكافة أنحاء العالم ويجب أن تنعم شعوب العالم بالسلام وتتمكن من مكافحة الوباء الخطير"

"Under the chilling effects generated by Beijing and Hong Kong governments, we are strongly aware how they arrest activists no matter whether they behave progressively or moderately...All we ask for is just to urge Beijing and Hong Kong governments to withdraw the bill, stop police brutality and respond to our calls for a free election."

"We are not seeking revolution. We just want democracy!"

"I hope one day not only Hong Kong people, but also people in mainland China, can enjoy freedom and democracy."

"The deplorable verdict and shockingly harsh sentence handed to Gui Minhai on completely unsubstantiated charges demonstrates yet again that the Chinese authorities are not letting the coronavirus crisis distract them from repressing dissidents… Unless China can provide concrete, credible and admissible evidence of the crimes Gui has allegedly committed, he must be released immediately and unconditionally."

"The charge is ludicrous, the only ‘state secrets’ that Gui may have is knowledge about how Chinese agents kidnapped him in Thailand, and about the torture he has endured after being returned to China."

"Now the leaders are more deadlocked. If they can’t decide, nothing happens. In America, if you’re corrupt you have to resign. Look at Nixon. He had Watergate and had to resign. In China does that happen? No. Why? Because everyone is in one boat. If that boat turns over, everyone ends up in the water. When I say “everyone” of course I mean the people in power. So in China everyone helps each other out. If you are in trouble, I’ll help you out and if I’m in trouble you help me out. So only in an extreme case like Bo Xilai can someone be pushed out."

"How could it be possible to kidnap and sentence people just because they produced a few books?"

"On the other hand, one ought to have the moral character and tolerance to forgive people’s weaknesses."

"Friends, after all, are supposed to mutually help each other, mutually understand each other. Keeping one’s strengths secret doesn’t only prevent one’s friends from knowing you; it also prevents one’s friends from advancing and learning from your strengths. Many such good strengths have been destroyed by the vanity of the petty bourgeoisie."

"Knowing one’s flaws is necessary, but knowing one’s strengths and having courage to use them is also necessary. To talk about one’s weaknesses to friends is frank and honest, just as talking about one’s strengths should also be seen as frank. Modesty is an important virtue, but practicality should also be valued."

"People always love expressing themselves, and they often pretend to be modest in their words, saying that they are no good at this or that. This is particularly common among friends. But even if people are actually modest, there is no benefit to their behavior."

"We don’t only depend on “images” to arouse passion and excitement in our lives. More importantly, we must have a rational spirit and help each other move forward. After all, “images” are just a means of getting one’s foot in the door."

"We should not be immeasurably satisfied with the qualities of a mediocre person, but we should also avoid artificial modesty."

"Feelings are better with a bit of depth. Many revolutionary leaps and achievements are accompanied by the colors of romance. Being able to remember the past with sentimentality is therefore a type of virtue. Regarding melancholy, I don’t like this emotion."

"Mao had died 13 years earlier. This gave China the chance to develop differently. And China had taken a different path in the 13 years since Mao's death. The students wanted the shadow of Mao to be left entirely behind so that China could become a democracy and corruption be ended. So the Chinese would have a better life and more freedom. [19] Officially, it was said that a riot had to be prevented. The army was supposed to restore peace and order. But there was no turmoil. The only problem was that Deng disagreed with the students. [19] At first, I thought Deng Xiaoping only wanted to intimidate the students and civilians with the army. I never would have believed that he - a Communist Party member who described himself as a revolutionary - would actually order to shoot. Soldiers from your own army shooting at students! That is incredible. ""

"The tainted milk scandal shows us that the more dark secrets are exposed, the better. You can't cure the disease, or save the Chinese people, until you get to the root of the problem." "If the Chinese government tries to play down this incident, there will be no social stability in China, let alone harmony... It will mean that this government has lost the most basic level of trust."

"We must correct all of Deng Xiaoping's mistakes. This is the only way to truly uphold Deng Xiaoping's vision. This is what it truly means to carry on Deng Xiaoping's work. Only when they acknowledge his mistakes and correct his mistakes can they stand taller than Deng Xiaoping. Otherwise they have no right to call themselves Deng Xiaoping's successors. They can only call themselves the successors of Deng Xiaoping's mistakes."

"The CCP ’s Party Constitution "states that there is something called Deng Xiaoping Theory. For political needs, it is a game of the Communist Party to enclose the party chiefs as" theorists, but in fact There is no "Deng Xiaoping Theory", just as there is no "Qin Shihuang Theory" in the world. Qin Shihuang did not rely on theory to establish centralized power, nor did Deng Xiaoping. He relied on Mao Zedong's power for the Communist Party to create a "Deng Xiaoping Road" that allowed China to enter The abyss of corruption. The difference is that few people extol the burning of Confucianism, but the "Deng Xiaoping Road" is endlessly fragrant, and the worshippers praise it all the way.""

"[His] life formed part of a heroic and mighty task, that of pioneering the protection of human rights and democracy for the Chinese people... To mourn Zhao is to defend human rights. To mourn Zhao is to pursue democracy and the rule of law."

"In interactions with friends, we all care about examining each others’ images, and we carefully emphasize the images that we present to our friends. The closer one is with someone, the more we care about this. People never want to feel insignificant in the eyes of someone else, unless we despise this person and want them to quickly forget us."

"Images of people actually objectively exist, and on some levels they reflect the peoples’ innermost worlds, including their thoughts, qualities, and personalities. Though some peoples’ actions do not match their words, I think this can be controlled. These people can hide their feelings. But hypocrites who perform as upright people aren’t very convincing."

"I was dragged into this and really wronged, but the truth will come out one day."

"Dad and Mom have passed away, but their teachings are deeply ingrained in my mind. I will never bring disgrace to them and their glory. I can bear the suffering no matter how great it is."

"I simply couldn't believe what I was seeing...All the doctors and nurses who saw yesterday's news were furious...Zhang Wenkang is ... abandoning even his most basic standards of integrity as a doctor."

"I think many people believe that detaining him was stupid...and he did nothing wrong."

"Of course I'm a racist, just like Lyndon Johnson, like Kennedy, like Lincoln, like Washington, like all Negroes—because all Negroes are racist. Everybody who lives in America is either racist or will become one. One cannot stay neutral: one must stand on one side or the other, without mixing colors or ideas—white with white, black with black. Integration is impossible. We are not interested in it and don't want it."

"It is because of America's racism that black people and colored people around the world are oppressed. Throughout history black people who spoke out against America and her racism have been subjected to exile, assassination, murder, or imprisonment. So what happened to me is nothing new or different. Justice is a joke in this country for black people, and it stinks of its hypocrisy. Justice in this country means "just-us white folks." Black people must understand that there is no redress of grievances in the courts but only in the streets, through armed guerrilla action."

"America is a country that makes you want things, but doesn't give you the means to get those things."

"When a race of people is oppressed within a system that fosters the idea of competitive individualism, the political polarization around individual interests prevents group interests. Each negro prides himself on his ability to reason or think as an individual. Therefore, any gains are to the individual and not to the group."

"White folks get all righteous and wonder why Black people steal and gamble. Same reason white folks do. We need money, because the society says you must have it to keep from starving. If you got it, you eat. If you don't, tough. But white people are able to make their stealing and gambling legitimate. White man'll sell you a $20 suit for $50 and call it good business. What he actually did was steal $30. White man'll buy a watch for $5.00 sell it for $49.95 and call the difference, profit. Profit is a nice word for stealing which the society has legitimatized."

"But this is the kind of education we were subjected to. Education ain't just what comes out of the books, but it's everything that goes on in the school. And if you leave school hating yourself, then it doesn't matter how much you know. Education in america has to be viewed as propaganda machinery. All educational systems are propaganda machines, but for Black people, the american educational system is a propaganda machine we don't need. It propagandizes against us. It makes us hate ourselves."

"I see America for what it is. It's another Germany. It's the Fourth Reich. America makes Hitler's and Germany's records look good."

"The whole concept of authority has to be redefined. People have to understand that individuals, not positions, merit respect. Negro america and white america assume that positions mandate respect. When this respect for position does not materialize, they begin to utilize force. This is why the Black world has rejected both negro america and white america and their ideas of authority."

"I was always at odds with teachers. There are certain things in negro institutions that you have to do if you expect to make good grades and certain things you don't do. One of those things is you don't talk back. You don't challenge the existing order. Well, I challenge anything that doesn't make good sense."

"If authority is to be used, it should not be a coercive type thing. After all, what dictates that a person can be put in an authoritative position over someone else? If it's experience, then respect should come from that, not authority. People should adhere to rules because they respect them and not because some position mandates that respect."

"In negro america, anything the teacher or the preacher or the doctor says is law. Not because it's right, but because of who said it. In white america, if the President or Senator Dipshit says it, no one challenges it. It can be wrong as hell, but everybody applauds anyway. I don't give a shit who says what. If the muthafucka is wrong, he's wrong."

"In this country, authority is a cover for wrong. I don't respect wrong and I don't respect authority that represents wrong."

"By being such a fearless voice fighting for human rights and fundamental freedoms in China, Ilham Tothi fully embodies the spirit of the Sakharov prize. Over the years, he advocated for the implementation of regional autonomy laws in China, encouraged greater awareness of the situation and treatment of the Uyghur community and fought against its exclusion from Chinese society. Ilham Tohti now risks spending the rest of his life in prison. The Renew Europe group sends today a strong message of support for his fight for human rights and freedoms of the Uyghur population by nominating him for the Sakharov prize."

"Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything."

"Standing on the yard in San Quentin, knowing that there's a riot coming, you're absolutely scared to death with every fiber of your body…[But] you have to pretend you're not. You have to stand there and make everybody think you like it."

"Trust in the world, which already collapsed in part at the first blow, but in the end, under torture, fully, will not be regained. That one's fellow man was experienced. as the antiman remains in the tortured person as accumulated horror. It blocks the view into a world in which the principle of hope rules."

"I made a deal with God. I said, ‘Let me die with dignity. If you do, I’ll say your name every day and I’ll do whatever I can for my fellow man.’ I didn’t want to go to the gas chamber, screaming and yelling and peeing myself."

"It would be totally senseless to try to describe here the pain that was inflicted on me. Was it 'like a red-hot iron in my shoulders,' and was another 'like a dull wooden stake that had been driven into the back of my head'? One comparison would only stand for the other, and in the end we would be hoaxed by turn on the hopeless merry-go-round of figurative speech. The pain was what it was. Beyond that there is nothing to say. Qualities of feeling are as incomparable as they are indescribable. They mark the limit of the capacity of language to communicate. If someone wanted to impart his physical pain, he would have to inflict it and thereby become a torturer himself."

"... nowhere else in the world did reality have as much effective power as in the camp, nowhere else was reality so real. In no other place did the attempt to transcend it prove so hopeless and so shoddy."