Affirmative Quotes - Page 3

• Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty, and the end of welfare and affirmative action.

  Ron Paul

  Political Opinions, Support, Liberty

  Ron Paul's newsletter (1992), as quoted in "10 Extreme Claims in Ron Paul’s Controversial Newsletters" by Andy Kroll, www.motherjones.com. January 3, 2012.

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• The purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a way to finally address the systemic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender, or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment, and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination.

  William J. Clinton

  Opportunity, Race, Doors

  Clinton, William J. (1996). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 1995”, p.1108, Best Books on

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• And when you tell me that somebody's skin color or gender is going to determine their prospects in this world, that is turning the clock back hundreds of years. Back to a time before this nation declared that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator; not by their ancestry, not by their skin color, not by their gender, not by Congress, not by the Constitution, and not by the laws

  Alan Keyes

  Men, Skin Color, Years

  "Preparing Our Country for the 21st Century: The Official Transcript of the United We Stand America Conference". Book by United We Stand America Inc., November, 1995.

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• That is one of the reasons I oppose this whole Affirmative Action business. We are not supposed to be judged based on what our ancestors did or suffered. We are supposed to be judged as individuals, based on what we are able to achieve.

  Alan Keyes

  Able, Action, Reason

  "Preparing Our Country for the 21st Century: The Official Transcript of the United We Stand America Conference". Book by United We Stand America Inc., November, 1995.

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• We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.

  Sandra Day O'Connor

  Years, Today, Use

  Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

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• Jesus was a lover of life, a very affirmative person, but Christianity is life-negative.

  Rajneesh

  Jesus, Negative, Lovers

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• Everything that is of authentic value in life has arisen out of meditation. There is no other way. Meditation is the mother of art, music, poetry, dance, sculpture. All that is creative, all that is life-affirmative, is born out of meditation. All that is life-negative - hate, anger, jealousy, violence, war - is born out of the mind. Man has two possibilities: mind and meditation.

  Rajneesh

  Mother, Art, War

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• The actor's physical type is the main consideration. It isn't and shouldn't be. Does the actor "look the part"? It is the simplest question to deal with. The director deludes himself who yields to the temptation to believe that an affirmative answer settles the matter. An actor's looks will impress an audience initially but after his first five minutes on stage it becomes aware of what he or she communicates (or fails to communicate) through acting!

  Harold Clurman

  Believe, Yield, Temptation

  "On Directing".

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• You can't talk about the environment, you can't talk about political correctness, affirmative action and all the other innumerable things that freedom is about, unless you have a free society based upon the integrity of the individual. If you have a responsible society, these other issues will not come up in a responsible society, and that is what freedom is all about.

  Russell Means

  Freedom, Integrity, Responsibility

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• The worst thing about affirmative action is that it encourages reverse discrimination, so-called because it goes in the opposite way of how we naturally discriminate.

  Stephen Colbert

  Opposites, Way, Action

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• I suppose I was dying again, so I asked the Lord of Permanent Affection for the strength to live the day. Clearly, the answer came in the affirmative." "I didn't know there was such a Fellow," Buttercup said. "Neither did I, in truth, but if He didn't exist, I didn't much want to either.

  William Goldman

  Dying, Answers, Want

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.221, A&C Black

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• The question of whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the Universe has been answered in the affirmative by some of the highest intellects that have ever existed.

  Charles Darwin

  Atheism, Intellect, Creator

  Charles Darwin (2016). “The Descent of Man (Diversion Classics)”, p.131, Diversion Books

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• The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they simply want what most people want, to be judged by the quality of their skills, not by the color of their skin. But the black conservatives overlook the fact that affirmative action policies were political responses to the pervasive refusal of most white Americans to judge black Americans on that basis.

  Cornel West

  Color, Skills, White

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• And, even if Affirmative Action survives, it is also clear that these policies are not themselves sufficient to close the educational and employment gaps that plague U.S. minorities.

  Harry J. Holzer

  Educational, Gaps, Minorities

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• Most important, [research on affirmative action] has completely failed to show that affirmative action ever closes the academic gap between minorities and whites. And failing in this, affirmative action also fails to help blacks achieve true equality with whites - the ultimate measure of which is parity in skills and individual competence. Without this underlying parity there can never be true equality in employment, income levels, rates of home ownership, educational achievement and the rest.

  Shelby Steele

  Educational, Home, Skills

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• I read American sagas (of the west) and I do not see people who went in search of material things. I see people who wrote down that what they sought was an escape from an old world which dictated their conscience and established their merit based on who their parents.

  Alan Keyes

  People, Parent, World

  "Preparing Our Country for the 21st Century: The Official Transcript of the United We Stand America Conference". Book by United We Stand America Inc., November, 1995.

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• The median GPA and LSAT percentile for students of the country's elite law schools were 3.8 and 98 respectively. At the time fewer than 20 black law students in the entire country met those standards.

  Lino Graglia

  Country, School, Gpa

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• [A]ffirmative action in the United States has made blacks. . .who have largely lifted themselves out of poverty, look like people who owe their rise to affirmative action and other government programs.

  Thomas Sowell

  Government, People, United States

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• All rights are individual. We do not get our rights because we belong to a group. Whether it's homosexuals, women, minorities, it leads us astray. You don't get your rights belonging to your group. A group can't force themselves on anybody else. So there should be no affirmative action for any group.

  Ron Paul

  Rights, Groups, Minorities

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• So many of our conversations (about affirmative action) have been dishonest

  Clarence Thomas

  Action, Conversation, Has Beens

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• ...Started by missionaries in 1841, Punahou Academy had grown into a prestigious prep school, an incubator for island elites...It hadn't been easy to get me in, my grandparents told her (my mother); there was a long waiting list, and I was considered only because of the intervention of Gramps' boss, who was an alumnus (my first experience with affirmative action, it seems, had little to do with race).

  Barack Obama

  Mother, School, Islands

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• You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Believe, Opportunity, Men

  Commencement Address at Howard University, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. June 04, 1965.

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• Perhaps because the challenges we face in our country are so daunting, we are also tempted by shortcuts. We tell ourselves that if we invent a new acronym, or write a new empowerment charter, we can avoid some of the back-breaking work that sustained progress requires

  Helen Zille

  Country, Writing, Challenges

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• Affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America, because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids aren't going to college.

  Barack Obama

  School, Kids, College

  "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer, edition.cnn.com. July 27, 2008.

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• You got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and latch on to the affirmative. Don't mess with Mr. In Between.

  Ann M. Martin

  Inspirational, Education, Negative

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