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Index: A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | Other Quote Indexes
A through C
Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel. Peter Abrahams (U.S. novelist, 1919- ) What do you get out of hating people, out of having this bitterness in your heart always? Chinua Achebe (Nigerian writer, 1930- ) As long as one people sit on another and are deaf to their cry, so long will understanding and peace elude all of us. John (Lord) Dalberg-Acton (English historian and theologian, 1834-1902) The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities. Abigail Adams (U.S. first lady and feminist, 1744-1818) If particular care is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, no representation. Henry Adams (U.S. historian, 1838-1918) A teacher influences eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. John Quincy Adams (U.S. politician, 1767-1848) Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize Jane Addams (U.S. social worker, 1860-1935) Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. Aesop (Greek fabulist, c. 620-560 B.C.) It is easy to be brave from a safe distance. Afghan Proverb To speak ill of anyone is to speak ill of yourself. African Proverbs Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters. Amos Bronson Alcott (U.S. teacher and reformer, 1799-1888) To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. Louisa May Alcott (U.S. teacher and writer, 1832-1888) Let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won. Muhammad Ali (U.S. boxer, 1942- ) I try to learn as much as I can because I know nothing compared to what I need to know. Saul Alinsky (U.S. political activist, 1902-1972) Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict. Paula Gunn Allen (Dacotah writer and scholar, 1939- ) America does not seem to remember that it derived its wealth, its values, its food, much of its medicine, and a large part of its "dream" from Native Americans. Isabel Allende (Chilean author, 1942- ) How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak? Gordon Allport (U.S. psychology professor, 1897-1967) People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them. Henri Amiel (Swiss poet and philosopher, 1821-1881) We are always making God our accomplice so that we may legalize our own inequities. Marian Anderson (U.S. contralto, 1897-1993) No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger that its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise. Maya Angelou (U.S. writer and actor, 1928- ) We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American. Susan B. Anthony (U.S. suffragist, 1820-1906) It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; not yet we, the male citizens; but we the whole people who formed the Union. Gloria Anzaldua (Tejana Chicana poet, 1942- ) I am visible--see this Indian face--yet I am invisible. I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I exist, we exist. They'd like to think I have melted in the pot. But I haven't. We haven't. Corazon Aquino (Filipina politician, 1933- ) Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice, otherwise it will not last. While we all hope for peace it shouldn't be peace at any cost but peace based on principle, on justice. Arabian Proverb The benefits you get become the debts you owe to others. Glenn Archer (U.S. jurist, 1929- ) The church must never become a government factory, carrying on a nationalized industry of religion with the people as the bolts and nuts; with God reduced to the role of cramped advocate of current national policy. Surely the pages of history are replete and the examples in many a foreign country convincing that this kind of church-state union--whatever the original motives, or however noble the original purposes--winds up with a state that is less than stable and a church that is less than sanctified, and with the poor still hungry. Hannah Arendt (German-born U.S. political scientist, 1906-1975) The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. Aristotle (Greek philosopher, 384-322 B.C.) They who are to be judges must also be performers. Matthew Arnold (English essayist and poet, 1822-1888) Choose equality. Arthur Ashe (U.S. tennis player, 1943-1993) It's an abnormal world I live in. I don't belong anywhere. It's like I'm floating down the middle. I'm never quite sure where I am. Mary Astell (English philosopher, 1668-1731) Fetters of gold are still fetters, and the softest lining can never make them so easy as liberty. Mary Astor (American actress, 1906-1987) Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer - into selflessness which links us to all humanity. Brooks Atkinson (U.S. dramatic critic, 1894-1984) The most fatal illusion is the settled point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.
Let the revolting distinction of rich and poor disappear once and for all, the distinction of great and small, of masters and valets, of governors and governed. Let there be no other differences between human beings than those of age and sex. Since all have the same needs and the same faculties, let there be one education for all, one food for all. Francis Bacon (English philosopher, 1561-1626) Truth can never be reached by just listening to the voice of an authority. Joan Baez (U.S. singer and activist, 1941- ) You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. Walter Bagehot (English economist, 1826-1877) A schoolmaster should have an atmosphere of awe, and walk wonderingly, as if he was amazed at being himself. Pearl Bailey (U.S. singer, actor, author, 1918-1990) We look into mirrors but we only see the effects of our times on us--not our effects on others. Robert Baird (U.S. theologian and clergyman, 1798-1863) The freedom allowed in the United States to all sorts of inquiry and discussion necessarily leads to a diversity of opinion, which is seen not only in their being different denominations, but different opinions also in the same denomination. Mikhail A. Bakunin (Russian revolutionist and anarchist, 1814-1876) If there be a human being who is freer than I, then I shall necessarily become his slave. If I am freer than any other, then he will become my slave. Therefore equality is an absolutely necessary condition of freedom. James Baldwin (U.S. writer, 1924-1987) Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it. Hosea Ballou (U.S. Universalist clergyman, 1771-1852) Hatred is self-punishment. Bambara Proverb God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed. Toni Cade Bambara (U.S. writer and teacher, 1939- ) Revolution begins with the self, in the self. Benjamin Banneker (U.S. astronomer, 1731-1806) The color of the skin is in no way connected with strength of the mind or intellectual powers. José Celso Barbosa (Puerto Rican politician, 1857-1921) Black! Black! Black! I am proud of being a Negro. Nor have I ever tried to beg tolerance from anyone. Superiority is not proved by color, but by the brain, by education, by willpower, by moral courage. Auguste Barthelemy (French writer, 1796-1867) The absurd man is he who never changes. Simone de Beauvoir (French existentialist and social essayist, 1908-1986) This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons hitherto brought forward in explanation of this fact has seemed adequate. Henry Becque (French playwright, 1837-1899) The defect of equality is that we only desire it with our superiors. Henry Ward Beecher (U.S. clergyman and writer, 1813-1887) That is true culture which helps us to work for the social betterment of all. Harry Belafonte (U.S. singer and actor, 1927- ) I am a man who perceives life in a certain way, a man who rejects things that defecate on humankind, who rejects anything that will not give people room for dissent. Arthur Bell (Canadian journalist, 1933-1984) Greatness meant strength. Strength meant masculinity. Masculinity meant heterosexuality. Heterosexuality meant facade. Maintain facade for the world to see. Cheat in the dark abyss of the soul. Clive Bell (English art critic, 1881-1964) Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily true; that what we like is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open. Gita Bellin ( ) If one desires a change, one must be that change before that change can take place. Saul Bellow (Canadian-born U.S. novelist, 1915- ) Everyone knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing you hold down the adjoining. John Berger (English novelist and playwright, 1926- ) The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing. Daniel Berrigan (Reverend, activist, and poet, 1921- ) Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even. Mary McLeod Bethune (U.S. educator and activist, 1875-1955) What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal chance to obtain them. Ambrose Bierce (U.S. writer, 1842-1914) Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. Steve Biko (South African political activist, 1946-1977) The myth of integration as propounded under the banner of the liberal ideology must be cracked because it makes people believe that something is being achieved when in reality the artificially integrated circles are a soporfic to the blacks while salving the consciences of the few guilt-stricken whites. Victoria Billings (U.S. journalist, 1945- ) Rape is a culturally fostered means of suppressing women. Legally we say we deplore it, but mythically we romanticize and perpetuate it, and privately we excuse and overlook it. Joan E. Biren (U.S. photographer and activist, 1944- ) Without a visual identity, we have no community, no support network, no movement. Making ourselves visible is a political act, making ourselves visible is a continual process. Richard Birnie (British author, 1808-1888) How large a share of vanity must spur the piety of the missionary. There is something melodramatic in landing on some Fiji island, in baptising, debauching and ultimately murdering the unsuspecting savage; then in taking his land in the name of the Most High. Hugo La Fayette Black (U.S. lawyer and Supreme Court justice, 1886-1971) No higher duty, or more solemn responsibility, rests upon this Court than that of translating into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to our Constitution--of whatever race, creed or persuasion. Black Elk (Oglala Sioux holy man, 1863-1950) Out of the Indian approach to life there came a great freedom, an intense and absorbing respect for life, enriching faith in a Supreme Power, and principles of truth, honesty, generosity, equity, and brotherhood as a guide to mundane relations. Black Hawk (Sauk leader, 1767-1838) The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it. May the Great Spirit shed light on your path, so that you may never experience the humility that the power of the American government has reduced me to. This is the wish of a man who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself. Alice Stone Blackwell (U.S. suffragist and reformer, 1857-1950) Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have both. Franz Boas (German anthropologist, 1858-1942) The existence of any pure race with special endowments is a myth, as is the belief that there are races all of whose members are foredoomed to eternal inferiority. Sigmund Boloz (U.S. poet and educator) We must merge our traditional sense of schooling with the real world. What we do in school must not insult the child's past but must build upon his past and encourage future learning. Julian Bond (U.S. assemblyman, writer, and teacher, 1940- ) Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. Kate Bornstein (U.S. writer and activist, 1948- ) I know I'm not a man--about that much I'm very clear, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm probably not a woman either, at least not according to a lot of people's rules on this sort of thing. The trouble is, we're living in a world that insists we be one or the other--a world that doesn't bother to tell us exactly what one or the other is. Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian nationalist leader, 1897-1945) Forget not that the grossest crime is to compromise with injustice and wrong. Remember the eternal law: you must give, if you want to get. Phyllis Bottome (British-born U.S. writer, 1884-1963) That a Jew is despised or persecuted is bad for him, of course--but far worse for the Christian who does it--for although persecuted he can remain a good Jew--whereas no Christian who persecutes can possibly remain--if he ever was one--a good Christian. Elizabeth Bowen (Irish novelist, 1899-1973) If you look at life one way, there is always cause for alarm. Ernest Boyer (American educator, 1928-1995) A poor surgeon hurts one person at a time. A poor teacher hurts 130. Sarah Patton Boyle (U.S. integration activist) Our minorities alone are in a position to know what the fathers of our democracy were talking about. Bill Bradley (U.S. Senator and basketball player, 1943- ) People tell me, "I'm glad you said that." But this is not a spectator sport. This is an activity that requires daily moral awakening as well as a commitment that leads to real change. Joseph Brant (Mohawk war chief, c. 1742-1807) No person among us desires any other reward for performing a brave and worthy action, but the consciousness of having served his nation. Mary Brave Bird (Lakota activist, 1956- ) After macrobiotics, Zen, and channeling, the "poor Vanishing Indian" is once more the subject of "deep and meaningful conversation" in the high rises. Bertolt Brecht (German playwright and poet, 1898-1956) Who struggles can fail. Who doesn't struggle has already failed! Jacob Bronowski (English scientist and mathematician, 1908-1974) The great poem and the deep theorem are new to every reader, and yet are his own experiences, because he himself recreates them. Emily Brontë (English writer and poet, 1818-1848) Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks. Gwendolyn Brooks (U.S. poet, 1917- ) It is brave to be involved Jerry Brown (U.S. politician, 1938- ) Inaction may be the biggest form of action. John Brown (U.S. abolitionist, 1800-1859) Had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends...every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment. Rita Mae Brown (U.S. novelist, 1944- ) Lesbianism, politically organized, is the greatest threat that exists to male supremacy. Rosemary Brown (Canadian politician, 1920- ) To be black and female, in a society which is both racist and sexist, is to be in a unique position of having nowhere to go but up. Sir Thomas Browne (English writer, 1605-1682) Persecution is a bad and indirect way to plan religion. Susan Brownmiller (U.S. writer, 1935- ) Rape is nothing more or less than a conscious process of intimidation by which all men keep all women in a state of fear. Martin Buber (Austrian theologian, 1878-1961) The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda. Pearl S. Buck (U.S. novelist, 1892-1973) It is not healthy when a nation lives within a nation, as colored Americans are living inside America. A nation cannot live confident of its tomorrow if its refugees are among its own citizens. Buddha (c. 563-483 B.C.) Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. Charlotte Bunch (U.S. writer, 1944- ) We know that priorities are amiss in the world when a man gets a military medal of honor for killing another man and a dishonorable discharge for loving one. Edmund Burke (British statesman and philosopher, 1729-1797) The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Nannie Burroughs (U.S. educator, 1883-1961) Anything that is as old as racism is in the blood line of the nation. It's not any superficial thing--that attitude is in the blood and we have to educate about it.
When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist. Albert Camus (French philosopher and writer, 1913-1960) The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding. Jane Welsh Carlyle (English writer, 1801-1866) In spite of the honestest efforts to annihilate my I-ity, or merge it in what the world doubtless considers my better half, I still find myself a self-subsisting and alas! self-seeking me. Jimmy Carter (U.S. President, 1924- ) We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. George Washington Carver (U.S. agricultural chemist, c. 1860-1943) How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. Sir Roger Casement (Irish revolutionary, 1864-1916) Where all your rights become only an accumulated wrong; where men must beg with bated breath for leave to subsist in their own land, to think their own thoughts, to sing their own songs, to garner the fruits of their own labors...then surely it is a braver, a saner and truer thing, to be a rebel in act and deed against such circumstances as these than tamely to accept it as the natural lot of men. Carrie Chapman Catt (U.S. suffragist, 1859-1947) Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government. Edith Cavell (Belgian nurse, 1865-1915) I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish novelist and poet, 1547-1616) There are only two families in the world, my old grandmother used to say, the Haves and the Have-nots. Aimé Césaire (Martiniquais poet and playwright, 1913- ) In the whole world no poor devil is lynched, no wretch is tortured, in whom I too am not degraded and murdered. Edwin Hubbel Chapin (U.S. clergyman and author, 1814-1880) Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth. John Jay Chapman (U.S. writer, 1862-1923) The gift of teaching is a peculiar talent, and implies a need and a craving in the teacher himself. Alexander Chase (U.S. journalist, 1926- ) All generalizations are false, including this one. Cesar Chavez (U.S. labor rights activist, 1927-1993) The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people. Gilbert K. Chesterton (English author, 1874-1936) The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things. Charles W. Chestnut (U.S. lawyer, 1858-1932) Race prejudice is the devil unchained. Lydia Maria Child (U.S. writer, 1802-1880) We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate. Chilean Proverb He who divides and shares, always takes the best part. Chinese Proverbs Every book must be chewed to get out its juice. Shirley Chisholm (First black Congresswoman in the U.S., 1924- ) In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing--antihumanism. Uno Chiyo (Japanese author, 1897-1996) I don't wish to not be a woman, but I'd certainly like to be a woman whose sense of purpose comes from within. Noam Chomsky (U.S. linguist and social theorist, 1928- ) What the public wants is called 'politically unrealistic.' Translated into English, that means power and privilege are opposed to it. Winston Churchill (British prime minister, 1874-1965) The miracle of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. Kenneth B. Clark (U.S. psychologist and social scientist, 1914- ) Over and above the political, economic, sociological, and international implications of racial prejudices, their major significance is that they place unnecessary burdens upon human beings. John Henrik Clarke (U.S. historian, 1915- ) It is too often forgotten that when the Europeans gained enough maritime skills and gunpowder to conquer most of the world, they not only colonized the bulk of the world's people but they colonized the interpretation of history itself. Human history was rewritten to favor them at the expense of other people. The roots of modern racism can be traced to this conquest and colonization. Pearl Cleage (U.S.writer and performer, 1948- ) Feminism is to sexism what black nationalism is to racism; the most rational response to the problem. Eldridge Cleaver (U.S. writer and Black Panther leader, 1935- ) The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less. Lucille Clifton (U.S. poet, 1936- ) I do not feel inhibited or bound by what I am. That does not mean that I have never had bad scenes relating to being black and/or a woman, it means that other people's craziness has not managed to make me crazy. Hillary Rodham Clinton (U.S. lawyer and First Lady, 1947- ) (at her 1969 college graduation speech) ...but we also know that to be educated, the goal of it must be human liberation--liberation enabling each of us to fulfill our capacity so as to be free to create within and around ourselves. Jean Cocteau (French writer and director, 1889-1963) I'm not willing to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and liberty. Marva Collins (U.S. educator, 1936- ) None of you has ever failed. School may have failed you. Goodbye to failure, children. Welcome to success. Lucy N. Colman (U.S. abolitionist, 1818-1906) If your Bible is an argument for the degradation of women, and the abuse by whipping of little children, I advise you to put it away, and use your common sense instead. Charles Caleb Colton (English writer and clergyman, 1780-1832) He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads. James Comer (U.S. psychiatrist, 1934- ) Being black in America is often like playing your home games on the opponent's court. Confucius (Chinese philosopher, c. 551-479 B.C.) A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, desiring attainment for himself, helps others to attain. John Conyers (U.S. senator, 1929- ) Custodial education does not have as its objective the education of youth but rather social control over them. It suppresses rather than stimulates their intellectual and physical energies. Eliza Cook (English poet, 1818-1889) Better build schoolrooms for "the boy" Ellis Cose (U.S. author and editor) If we tell ourselves that the only problem is hate, we avoid facing the reality that it is mostly nice, nonhating people who perpetuate racial inequality. Henry Cox (U.S. educator and writer, 1929- ) The real illness of the American city today, and especially of the deprived groups within it, is voicelessness. Marcelene Cox (U.S. writer) Children whose problems aren't recognized become problem children. James Crawford (U.S. writer and lecturer) With typical arrogance, the Anglos claimed to cherish freedom of speech but failed to recognize this right for anyone but themselves. Where did the Constitution say anything about English? Crazy Horse (Oglala Sioux Chief, 1842-1877) One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. Harold Cruse (U.S. writer, 1916- ) America is a nation that lies to itself about who and what it is. It is a nation of minorities ruled by a minority of one--it thinks and acts as if it were a nation of white Anglo-Saxons and Protestants. Cuban Proverbs Every head is a world. Marie Curie (Polish-born French chemist, 1867-1934) You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful. Cypress Proverbs We must convince by reason, not prescribe by tradition. Return to the top of the page.
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