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Complicity Quotes

When silence becomes agreement.

These complicity quotes explore how institutions, bystanders, and even well-meaning officials can share in outcomes they never directly caused, including reflections on historical failures like the Rwandan genocide. See related ideas in About quotes.

Black people are victims of an enormous amount of violence. None of those things can take place without the complicity of the people who run the schools and the city.

Quotes by Toni Morrison

In my view the European culture carries a very heavy responsibility for the creation of Israel... it is a product of both British and Stalin's anti- Semitism, but the British never faced their own complicity in its construction.

Quotes by Tom Paulin

The story of U.S. policy during the genocide in Rwanda is not a story of willful complicity with evil. U.S. officials did not sit around and conspire to allow genocide to happen.

Quotes by Samantha Power

Drug use, within entire teams continues unabated. It is planned and deliberate cheating, with complex methods, sophisticated substances and techniques, and the active complicity of doctors, scientists, team officials and riders. There is nothing accidental about it.

Quotes by Richard Pound

About Quotes

There is respect for law, and then there is complicity in lawlessness.

Quotes by Rebecca MacKinnon

Symbolic violence is violence wielded with tacit complicity between its victims and its agents, insofar as both remain unconscious of submitting to or wielding it.

Quotes by Pierre Bourdieu

We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America. Period.

Quotes by George Tenet

While a strong presence on our southern border is imperative, the border cannot be secured unless we enforce our internal laws and stop ignoring the open complicity of U.S. companies and foreign nations to promote illegal activities.

Quotes by Elton Gallegly

It was like a complicit - there was complicity between the churches and the state in taking care of the 'Indian problem,' solving the 'Indian problem,' and trying to change who we were.

Quotes by Dennis Banks

America Quotes

One culture I find fascinating to juxtapose against American culture is the culture of Germany. They've gone through a long process through their art, poetry, public discourse, their politics, of owning the fact of their complicity in what happened in...

Quotes by Chris Jordan

Money talks. It starts rumors about careers and complicity and speaks of the tragedies and triumphs of our social lives.

Quotes by Barbara Kruger

All share complicity in the destruction of that much under-rated phenomenon called liberty.

Quotes by Barbara Amiel

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "complicity" mean in this collection of quotes?
It refers to being knowingly or passively involved in wrongdoing, whether through silence, inaction, or direct participation in a harmful system.
Do any complicity quotes reference real historical events?
Yes, one reflects on U.S. policy during the Rwandan genocide, arguing officials failed to act rather than deliberately conspiring toward harm.
Is complicity always about major political events?
No, some quotes apply it to smaller-scale institutions, like schools or sports organizations that enable violence or doping through inaction.
How does complicity connect to cultural responsibility?
One quote ties European culture to historical responsibility for geopolitical outcomes, showing complicity can span nations and generations. Related discussion continues in American Culture quotes.
Where else can I read about accountability themes like this?
Our About quotes and Art quotes pages touch on related questions of responsibility and expression.

From doping scandals to political history, these lines ask hard questions about who bears responsibility. Continue with America quotes or Art quotes for more perspective.