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Quote: One Strike Left…
'You’ve got two strikes against you: You’re a woman and you’re a Negro.’ Yeah, but...
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Quote: All mortals are equal…
Les mortels sont égaux; ce n’est pas la naissance, C’est la seule vertu qui fait la différence. All mortals are equal; it is not their birth, But virtue itself that makes the difference. Voltaire, Eriphile, act II, scene I (1732); these lines were also used in Mahomet, act I, scene IV (1741)
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Quote: Man is free…
L’homme est libre au moment qu’il veut l’être. Man is free at the instant he wants to be. Voltaire, Brutus, act II, scene I (1730)
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Quote: Dangerous to be right…
Il est dangereux d’avoir raison dans des choses où des hommes accrédités ont tort. It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. or It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. ~ Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV (1752)
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Quote: If you want good laws…
Voulez-vous avoir de bonnes lois; brûlez les vôtres, et faites-en de nouvelles. If you want good laws, burn those you have and make new ones. ~ Voltaire, Laws (1765)
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Quote: …even as we are caught in a web…
…and as I slowly made my way home I understood that even as we are caught in a web of hurt and brokenness, we’re also in a web of healing and mercy. ~ Bryan Stevenson (from Just Mercy)
- Bryan Stevenson, crime and punishment, human rights, Justice, mercy, Quotes, state violence, Uncategorized
Quote: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.
Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us. The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor; the…
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We Need to Talk About An Injustice
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Quote: It’s a crime, the lie that has been told to generations of black men and white men both.
It’s a crime, the lie that has been told to generations of black men and white men both. Little innocent black children, born of parents who believed that their race had no history. Little black children seeing, before they could talk, that their parents considered themselves inferior. Innocent black children growing up, living out their lives, dying of old age-and all of their lives ashamed of being black. But the truth is pouring out of the bag now. … You have to be careful, very careful, introducing the truth to the black man who has never previously heard the truth about himself, his own kind, and the white man. My…
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Quote: Justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other.
Clem understood that justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free, too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice. Or a shield against progress. It must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. {Follow link to read full quote.}
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Quote: “…all I’ve had in my life is nothing.”
Thurgood Marshall became a federal appeals court judge in New York, when he was begrudgingly named to the bench by President Kennedy after Marshall had spurned his offer of a seat on the federal trial bench some time before. In his refusal of the trial bench he stated, “My boiling point is too low for the trial court. I’d blow my stack and then get reversed.” That initial offer had come from Robert Kennedy, who warned, “You don’t seem to understand, it’s this or nothing.” “I do understand,” Marshall replied. “You don’t know what it means, but all I’ve had in my life is nothing. It’s not new to me,…
