Speaks Out Quotes - Page 9

• If I were to envy any persons on this planet, it would be mountain hermits. You often hear old platitudes such as, 'Speak out. Be heard.' On the contrary, a breath of fresh air would be something like: 'Silence, think for at least 15 minutes, and then maybe speak out.

  Criss Jami

  Thinking, Air, Envy

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.55, Criss Jami

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• I wish to preface my reflections by saying that I am conducting this prayer service and am speaking to you now with great reluctance. I did not seek to enter any controversy and I don't relish being part of one. But I have given this matter a great deal of thought and prayer, which has led me to the conviction that God is calling me to speak out and conduct these prayers.

  Thomas J. Paprocki

  Prayer, Reflection, Wish

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• The old parties are husks, with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Real, Party, Issues

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.78, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The devil is not fighting religion. He´s too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity, so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it.

  Vance Havner

  Christian, Real, Smart

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• There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told.

  James Russell Lowell

  Two, Wish, Age

  Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, Henry Cabot Lodge (1871). “The North American Review”, p.196

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• It's so easy to demagogue the issue and make someone who speaks out against the internal-combustion engine sound like an insane communist, when the truth is that the internal-combustion engine is the biggest threat to my life in the next 25 years, in terms of what it's doing to our environment and how it's depleting the ozone layer and so forth.

  Bill Maher

  Issues, Ozone, Insane

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I am not a national leader. If I am a national leader I can speak out all that I want.

  Ban Ki-moon

  Leader, Want, Ifs

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• The majority of American writers today have chosen passive non-resistance to things as they are, producing sloughs of poetry about their personal angst and anomie, cascades of short stories and rivers of novels obsessed with the nuances of domestic relationships - suburban hanky-panky - chic boutique shopping mall literary soap opera. When they do speak out on matters of controversy they attack not the evils of our time but fellow writers who may insist on complaining.

  Edward Abbey

  Shopping, Rivers, Evil

  Edward Abbey (1988). “One Life at a Time, Please”, p.172, Macmillan

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• My parents were both first-generation Irish Catholics raised in Brooklyn. But it was more for me - it was that women of that generation were even less likely to express themselves, more likely to have that active interior life that they didn't dare speak out. So I was interesting in women of that era. I was interested in the language of that era. There's so much. And, certainly, this is cultural, so much there wasn't spoken about.

  Alice McDermott

  Interesting, Parent, Catholic

  "Alice McDermott invokes a voice little heard in life or literature for 'Someone'". "PBS NewsHour" with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. October 8, 2013.

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• Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne, Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He stared at the Pacific, and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise, Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

  John Keats

  Eye, Men, Islands

  "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" l. 5 (1817)

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• If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger and suffering speaks out, then the noise will be deafening.

  Desmond Tutu

  Suffering, Want, Noise

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• With Russia about to hold the Winter Games in Sochi, the country is open to pressure. American and world leaders must speak out against Mr. Putin's attacks and the violence they foster. The Olympic Committee must demand the retraction of these laws under threat of boycott.

  Harvey Fierstein

  Country, Gay, Winter

  "Russia’s Anti-Gay Crackdown". www.nytimes.com. July 21, 2013.

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• You say, "Well, I am not going to be anyone's 'yes man.' If I see something wrong in a person, I'm going to warn others about it." Fine. But beware that what you are calling "courage to speak out" is not more truly a deception masking a rebellious, dishonouring attitude.

  Francis Frangipane

  Attitude, Men, Deception

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• Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls. The least admixture of a lie-for example, the taint of vanity, the least attempt to make a good impression, a favorable appearance-will instantly vitiate the effect.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Honesty, Lying

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Self-Reliance, the Over-Soul, and Other Essays”, p.111, Coyote Canyon Press

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• There's a better way to speak out against President Putin and call out his bigotry for exactly what it is: speaking up for equal rights and educating people around the world about the persistence of homophobia. Rather than boycott, I, along with several amazing organizations including Athlete Ally and All Out, plan to use the Sochi Games as a teachable moment for the world.

  Greg Louganis

  Athlete, Gay, Persistence

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• Failure is not the opposite to success, it's a stepping stone to success. If our primary goal is to be approved of, then we are not going to take risks, we are not going to speak out, we are going to try to blend in.

  Arianna Huffington

  Opposites, Goal, Risk

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• It's not enough for women to speak out on the issue - for the message to be strong and consistent, women's voices must be backed up by men's.

  John Conyers

  Strong, Men, Voice

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• On popular issues like poverty and slavery, where Christians are likely to be applauded for our social action, we are quick to stand up and speak out. Yet on controversial issues like homosexuality and abortion, where Christians are likely to be criticized for our involvement, we are content to sit down and stay quiet.

  David Platt

  Christian, Issues, Abortion

  David Platt (2015). “Counter Culture: Following Christ in an Anti-Christian Age”, p.13, Tyndale House

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• Why should I need an artist to explain a work of art to me? Why should it not speak out to me itself?

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Art, Needs, Should

  Mahatma Gandhi (1976). “Collected Works”

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• Women tend to vote the economic interests of their families and to speak out on family economic issues. For men, there's often much more focus on the idea of personal failure: "If I'm not winning this great economic game, it must be my fault."

  Elizabeth Warren

  Winning, Men, Games

  Interview with Ruth Conniff, progressive.org. December 27, 2009.

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• It's very difficult for you to speak out against your child, someone that's in your family. You can have an argument with them, but you can't condemn them. You can't cast them out, because God has not done that to us. We cannot do that to anybody else.

  Otis Moss III

  Children, Done, Argument

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• If there are still men who really want to live in this world, they should first dare to speak out, to laugh, to cry, to be angry, to accuse, to fight-that they may at least cleanse this accursed place of its accursed atmosphere!

  Lu Xun

  Fighting, Men, Laughing

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• But if there be an hereafter,And that there is, conscience, uninfluenc'dAnd suffer'd to speak out, tells every man,Then must it be an awful thing to die;More horrid yet to die by one's own hand.

  Robert Blair

  Men, Hands, Suffering

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• Silence is so often applauded and those who speak out are often called tasteless.

  Margaret Cho

  Silence, Speak, Silence Is

  "Margaret Cho: Laugh Lines". Interview with Katie Halper, www.guernicamag.com. June 15, 2015.

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• I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.

  Ai Weiwei

  Thinking, People, Example

  "Ai Weiwei: 'I have to speak for people who are afraid'". Interview with Tania Branigan, www.theguardian.com. March 18, 2010.

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