Social Justice Quotes - Page 3

• A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Past, America, Justice

  "Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community?". Book by Martin Luther King, Jr., p. 109, 1967.

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• Patriotism is usually the refuge of the scoundrel. He is the man who talks the loudest.

  Mark Twain

  Men, Patriotism, Ethics

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.350, Courier Corporation

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• The future is in our hands. We are not hapless bystanders. We can influence whether we have a planet of peace, social justice, equity, and growth or a planet of unbridgeable differences between peoples, wasted resources, corruption, and terror.

  James Wolfensohn

  Past, Bystanders, Hands

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• For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt.

  Lillian Hellman

  Life, Freedom, Men

  Lillian Hellman (1944). “Watch on the Rhine: Acting Ed. Play in Three Acts”

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• Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

  Thornton Wilder

  Encouraging, Money, Humorous

  "The Matchmaker". Play by Thornton Wilder. Act 4, 1957.

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• Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects it.

  Muhammad Ali

  Inspiration, Dark, Justice

  Twitter post from Dec 01, 2010

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• Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Kings, Destiny

  "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. 1963

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• To say that it is not our fault does not relieve us of responsibility. However, we may not have polluted the air, but we need to take responsibility, along with others, for cleaning it up. Each of us needs to look at our own behavior. Am I perpetuating and reinforcing the negative messages so pervasive in our culture, or am I seeking to challenge them?

  Beverly Daniel Tatum

  Responsibility, Air, Justice

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• I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes still young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.

  Black Elk

  Beautiful, Dream, Children

  "Black Elk Speaks". Book by John Gneisenau Neihardt, 1932.

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• We have previously suggested that philanthropy combines genuine pity with the display of power and that the latter element explains why the powerful are more inclined to be generous than to grant social justice.

  Reinhold Niebuhr

  Powerful, Justice, Elements

  Reinhold Niebuhr (2015). “Reinhold Niebuhr: Major Works on Religion and Politics: (Library of America #263)”, p.288, Library of America

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• The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end the injustice.

  Paul Robeson

  Justice, Diversity, Silence

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• Whenever the dollar is held supreme and capitalistic interests dominate, a higher value will always be placed upon property rights than upon human rights.

  Dick Gregory

  Rights, Justice, Diversity

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• The favorite device of the devil, ancient and modern, is to force a human being into a more or less artificial class, accuse the class of unnamed and unnameable sin, and then damn any individual in the alleged class, however innocent he may be.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Class, Justice, Diversity

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• Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society's well. Even the poorest whites, those who must live their lives only a few levels above, gain their self-esteem by gazing down on us. Surely, they must know that their deliverance depends on letting down their ropes. Only by working together is escape possible. Over time, many reach out, but most simply watch, mesmerized into maintaining their unspoken commitment to keeping us where we are, at whatever cost to them or to us (Bell).

  Derrick Bell

  Life, Change, Self Esteem

  Derrick Bell (2008). “Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism”, p.5, Basic Books

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• Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building, it is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists...it is fundamental that justice should be the same, in substance and availability, without regard to economic status.

  Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

  Inspirational, Equality, Availability

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• God told me to look after my people-all are my people.

  Smohalla

  People, Justice, Looks

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• Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisons.

  John Ruskin

  Education, School, Diversity

  Unto This Last Essay 2 (1862)

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• No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.

  George Jean Nathan

  Life, Wisdom, Crazy

  George Jean Nathan (1972). “The World in Falseface”, p.21, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

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• Let him who expects one class of society to prosper in the highest degree, while the other is in distress, try whether one side; of the face can smile while the other is pinched.

  Thomas Fuller

  Smile, Class, Diversity

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• In America the government took the land from the Indians and then established laws protecting private property.

  Alvin Francis Poussaint

  Law, Land, America

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• This is called 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'; it is called the 'asylum of the oppressed,' and some have been foolish enough to call it the 'Cradle of Liberty.' If it is the 'Cradle of Liberty,' they have rocked the child to death.

  William Wells Brown

  Children, Home, Land

  William Wells Brown, Paula Garrett, Hollis Robbins (2006). “The Works of William Wells Brown: Using His "strong, Manly Voice"”, p.12, Oxford University Press, USA

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• It is a worthy thing to fight for one's freedom; it is another sight finer to fight for another man's.

  Mark Twain

  Fighting, Men, Sight

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.7028, Delphi Classics

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• They who are to be judges must also be performers.

  Aristotle

  Justice, Judging, Performers

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.274, Aristotle

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• Without food, man at most can live but a few weeks; without it all other components of social justice are meaningless.

  Norman Borlaug

  Men, Justice, Week

  "Mankind and Civilization at Another Crossroad".

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• O ye rich ones on earth! The poor in your midst are My trust; guard ye My trust, and be not intent only on your own ease.

  Bahá'u'lláh

  Justice, Earth, Ease

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