Of course it can be said of jails, too, that they try - by punishing the troublesome - to deter others. No doubt, in certain instances this deterrence actually works. But generally speaking it fails conspicuously. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
“...the court, as now constituted, would be meaningless without the jail which gives it its power. But if there is anything I have learned by being in jail, it is that prisons are wrong, simply and unqualifiedly wrong.” — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
Nonviolent tactics can move into action on our behalf men not naturally inclined to act for us. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both… — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision. . . is one that abandons the concept of naming… — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
Think first of the action that is right to take, think later about coping with one's fears. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
Surely all of us are nerved by one another, catch courage from one another. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
Let me be really here, here in this place and this time where I am. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
The injunction that we should love our neighbors as ourselves means to us equally that we should love ourselves as we love our neighbors. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image
A liberation movement that is nonviolent sets the oppressor free as well as the oppressed. — Barbara Deming Copy Share Image