…when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger. Gertrude Stein
Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution. George Eliot
Persecution produced its natural effect on them. It found them a sect; it made them a faction. Thomas Babington Macaulay
The history of persecution is a history of endeavors to cheat nature, to make water run up hill, to twist a rope of sand. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Even today a crude sort of persecution is all that is required to create an honourable name for any sect, no matter how indifferent in itself. Friedrich Nietzsche
Persecution readily knits friendship between its victims. Ralph Waldo Emerson
In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution. Alexander Hamilton