Mumia Abu-Jamal Quotes

• When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
  just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
  And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
  justice.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Courage, Talking, Justice

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Dec 01, 2010

  194 Copy quote

• Do you see law and order? There is nothing but disorder, and instead of law there is the illusion of security. It is an illusion because it is built on a long history of injustices: racism, criminality, and the genocide of millions. Many people say it is insane to resist the system, but actually, it is insane not to.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Order, Law, Long

  Mumia Abu-Jamal (2003). “Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience”, p.11, South End Press

  207 Copy quote

• Contrary to popular belief, conventional wisdom would have one believe that it is insane to resist this, the mightiest of empires… But what history really shows is that today`s empire is tomorrow`s ashes, that nothing lasts forever, and that to not resist is to acquiesce in your own oppression. The greatest form of sanity that anyone can exercise is to resist that force that is trying to repress, oppress, and fight down the human spirit.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Believe, Fighting, Exercise

  173 Copy quote

• Politics is the art of making the people believe that they are in power, when in fact, they have none.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Art, Believe, People

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Aug 26, 2011

  127 Copy quote

• If you ain't angry, you ain't paying attention.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Attention, Pay Attention, Angry

  97 Copy quote

• If they survive, today's children will inherit a world that our fathers and grandfathers have ravaged, where the seas are acidic cesspools that the whales have fled, where rain forests are Indian memories never to return, and where human greed has plundered Mother Earth's innards and turned human genes into factories for profit. They will inherit a diminished planet where fresh water is increasingly rare, and where fresh air is a commodity... We live in a world that fears and hates its young. How else can one explain the bequest of such a foul, polluted, and hollow inheritance?

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Mother, Children, Memories

  117 Copy quote

• The media, itself an arm of mega-corporate power, feeds the fear industry, so that people are primed like pumps to support wars on rumor, innuendo, legends, and lies.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  War, Lying, Media

  115 Copy quote

• Many claim that it is insane to resist the system; but actually, it is insane not to.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Insane, Claims

  74 Copy quote

• Prison is a second-by-second assault on the soul, a day-to-day degradation of the self, an oppressive steel and brick umbrella that transforms seconds into hours and hours into days.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Self, Soul, Steel

  Mumia Abu-Jamal (1995). “Live from Death Row”, Addison Wesley Publishing Company

  53 Copy quote

• At the risk of quoting Mephistopheles I repeat: Welcome to hell. A hell erected and maintained by human-governments, and blessed by black robed judges. A hell that allows you to see your loved ones, but not to touch them. A hell situated in America's boondocks, hundreds of miles away from most families. A white, rural hell, where most of the captives are black and urban. It is an American way of death.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Blessed, Government, White

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Sep 10, 2011

  92 Copy quote

• Elie Wiesel says that the greatest evil in the world is not anger or hatred, but indifference. If that is true, then the opposite is also true: that the greatest love we can show our children is the attention we pay them, the time we take for them. Maybe we serve children the best simply by noticing them.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Children, Opposites, Evil

  68 Copy quote

• The United States is Fast Becoming One of the Biggest Open-Air Prisons on Earth

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Becoming One, Air, United States

  "Mumia Abu-Jamal: "The United States Is Fast Becoming One of the Biggest Open-Air Prisons on Earth"". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. February 01, 2013.

  74 Copy quote

• The state would rather give me an uzi than a microphone.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Giving, States, Microphones

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Aug 26, 2011

  66 Copy quote

• Very few people in prison have voices that go beyond the wall. It's my job to do the work for them because they have no one.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Jobs, Wall, Voice

  61 Copy quote

• Before this generation goes on to its ancestors, we should, we must, do our level best to pass on our lessons, so that they live in our people's minds and lives.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  People, Mind, This Generation

  42 Copy quote

• I spend my days preparing for life, not preparing for death.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Preparing For Death, Preparing

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Aug 24, 2011

  52 Copy quote

• Today's empire is tomorrow's ashes...

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Ashes, Empires, Today

  "Finally, MLK Jr’s Revolution? Challenging Confederate Generals and US Generals Today" by Mark Lewis Taylor, www.counterpunch.org. August 29, 2017.

  44 Copy quote

• If the Constitution can be used against one, it can be used against all.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Constitution, Used, Ifs

  "Extended Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal on New Pennsylvania Law Restricting Prisoners’ Speech". "Democracy Now!" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. October 24, 2014.

  46 Copy quote

• The role of television is the illusion of company, noise. I call it the fifth wall and the second window: the window of illusion.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Wall, Roles, Television

  FaceBook post by Mumia Abu Jamal from Sep 02, 2011

  50 Copy quote

• I was punished for communicating.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Communicate

  44 Copy quote

• here and there in the barrios and the favelas, among those who have least, beat hearts of hope, fly sparks of Overcoming.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Heart, Overcoming, Here And There

  Mumia Abu-Jamal (2003). “Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience”, p.54, South End Press

  46 Copy quote

• I think because I came into journalism by way of the Black Panther Party - and not J-school or a corporate bourgeois institution - I tried to do news, writing and reporting that had social, political and racial content and context.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Party, Writing, School

  50 Copy quote

• Free people have a right to decide for themselves what they want to hear.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  People, Want

  40 Copy quote

• Conventional wisdom would have one believe.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Believe, Conventional Wisdom, Conventional

  36 Copy quote

• I have learned not to do predictions. It's not helpful, psychologically. I don't sit and fret about things.

  Mumia Abu-Jamal

  Helpful, Predictions, I Have Learned

  16 Copy quote

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