Quotes

[Referring to the public's reaction the verdict of the OJ Simpson murder case] Well, it was based on emotion, the reaction from white America was based on emotion.

When you are faced with prejudice, logic and justice are impotent. Still, we may have an obligation to argue directly into the face of the prejudice, even though there is no chance to win.

Everyone wants to argue. Everyone does. Everyone needs to.

The word root of "prejudice", "praejudicium", implies "prejudgment".

Without argument the species would perish. As a subtle suggestion, it is the means by which we aid another. As a warning, it steers us from danger. As exposition, it teaches. As an expression of creativity, it is the gift of ourselves. As a protest, it struggles for justice. As a reasoned dialogue, it resolves disputes. As an assertion of self, it engenders respect. As an entreaty of love, it expresses our devotion. As a plea, it generates mercy. As charismatic oration it moves multitudes and changes history. We must argue - to help, to warn, to lead, to love, to create, to learn, to enjoy justice - to be.

Prejudice locks the mind. Nothing can enter, nothing true can escape.

Use simple words, words that create pictures and action and that generate feeling.

The gift of self cannot be given to us. It is an incomparable gift that has already been given. We have possessed it from the beginning.

My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.

To freely bloom - that is my definition of success.

I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.

The new and most powerful union of all will be a union of one - one man, one woman, one worker with special skills, an inquiring mind, and an independent attitude, his creativity intact, his love of life blooming. The union of one will be peopled by one man or one woman who is alive. Such a person is always sought by the intelligent manager.

To bargain freedom for security is the devil's bargain. Having made the bargain, one enjoys neither freedom nor security.

Teach the child to respect that which is not respectable and you teach the child the first requirement of slavery: submission to unjust authority.

There are only two races, and they are not distinguished by color: those who are free and those who are not.

Children are persons, they are small persons whose perfect souls have not yet been ground through the meat grinder of slavery.

The goal of a free nation is to reveal by example the enlightened possibilities of the human race, not to wield its power of destruction and death over the helpless, the poor, the starving and the war torn masses. The goal of a free nation must be no different outside its borders than within them.

I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man.

In America we do not massacre whole towns because they may be the chosen domicile of a criminal or a conspiracy of criminals. Instead we carefully root out the felons and bring them to justice. In the same way, the goal of a free nation must be to first view all people as members of the human race, and, as such, to insist that they possess fundamental human rights. They are, as we, citizens of the world.

No artist's masterpiece can match a mother's creation of a successful child, one who has been freed to explore and to grow. ... Success is measured not only by who we are, but by what gifts we give. As the old chief said, "The gift is not complete until it is given again." Ah, the mother whose gift to the world is a person!

Nearly every day on the television set the hero cop breaks into the bad guy's house and beats a confession out of him and we cheer on the cop. Propaganda smears our clear vision. It causes us to accept the diminishment of our constitutional protections as something to be lauded - after all, the cop was protecting us.

The Internet has become the phenomenon of the new century. It has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction. It creates neighbors where once we were foreigners. It carries our individual voices to new communities formed through the magic of electronics.

The less of one's life one must exchange for money, the more freedom one may enjoy.

We cannot, as a people, remain mute and free.

A new fascism promises security from the terror of crime. All that is required is that we take away the criminals' rights - which, of course, are our own.

There are no rules that say lawyers cannot write or speak from their heart. Passion has never been formally outlawed, although it is a little-known experience among most lawyers and nearly all academicians.

If I am real, if I am speaking from the heart zone, the right words will come. They will come a spoonful at a time, in the proper mixture.

At last, we are defined by how we use our power.

On terrorism: Power can win the body count but it cannot win this war. Because the enemy is not human. This is a war against a malicious spirit. Only fools attempt to defeat a spirit with guns and rockets and bombs.

The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them.

Power often stands in the way of learning. Wisdom revealed by simple lessons is hard to see for leaders wearing the blinders of power. But we, too, have choices.