Kamala Harris > Quotes

“A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. . . . We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“For as long as ours has been a nation of immigrants, we have been a nation that fears immigrants. Fear of the other is woven into the fabric of our American culture, and unscrupulous people in power have exploited that fear in pursuit of political advantage.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“My daily challenge to myself is to be part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle to come. My challenge to you is to join that effort. To stand up for our ideals and our values. Let's not throw up our hands when it's time to roll up our sleeves. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Years from now, our children and our grandchildren will look up and lock eyes with us. They will ask us where we were when the stakes were so high. They will ask us what it was like. I don't want us to just tell them how we felt. I want us to tell them what we did.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“In the years to come, what matters most is that we see ourselves in one another's struggles. p 120”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“But when you can’t sleep at night, how can you dream?”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“When you break through a glass ceiling, you're going to get cut, and it's going to hurt.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“For too long, we’d been told there were only two options: to be either tough on crime or soft on crime—an oversimplification that ignored the realities of public safety. You can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and also want them to stop using excessive force. You can want them to hunt down a killer on your streets and also want them to stop using racial profiling. You can believe in the need for consequence and accountability, especially for serious criminals, and also oppose unjust incarceration. I believed it was essential to weave all these varied strands together.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Our unity is our strength, and our diversity is our power. We reject the myth of “us” vs. “them.” We are in this together”
― Kamala Harris

“Like it or not, most people prioritize their own safety over the education of someone else’s child. I wanted to make them see that if we didn’t prioritize education now, it would be a public safety matter later.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“The job of an elected official is not to sing a lullaby and soothe the country into a sense of complacency. The job is to speak truth, even in a moment that does not welcome or invite its utterance.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”
― Kamala Harris

“As I sat alone in my new office, I recalled a time, as a young prosecutor, when I overheard some of my colleagues in the hallway. “Should we add the gang enhancement?” one of them asked. “Can we show he was in a gang?” the other said. “Come on, you saw what he was wearing, you saw which corner they picked him up on. Guy’s got the tape of that rapper, what’s his name?” I stepped out into the hallway. “Hey, guys, just so you know: I have family that live in that neighborhood. I’ve got friends who dress in that style. And I’ve got a tape of that rapper in my car right now.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Black men use drugs at the same rate as white men, but they are arrested twice as often for it. And then they pay more than a third more than their counterparts, on average, in bail. Black men are six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated. And when they are convicted, black men get sentences nearly 20 percent longer than those given to their white counterparts. Latino men don’t fare much better. It is truly appalling.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Drawing on the words of Coretta Scott King, I reminded the audience that freedom must be fought for and won by every generation. "It is the very nature of this fight for civil rights and justice and equality that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. So we must be vigilant, " I said.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“It is often the mastery of the seemingly unimportant details, the careful execution of the tedious tasks, and the dedicated work done outside of the public eye that make the changes we seek possible.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“The criminal justice system punishes people for their poverty.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“What I want young women and girls to know is: You are powerful and your voice matters. You're going to walk into many rooms in your life and career where you may be the only one who looks like you or who has had the experiences you've had. But you remember that when you are in those rooms, you are not alone. We are all in that room with you applauding you on. Cheering your voice. And just so proud of you. So you use that voice and be strong.”
― Kamala Harris

“I have a saying: Disappointment is a function of unreasonable expectations.”
― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

“One of my mother’s favorite sayings was “Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“I had divided my to-do list into three categories: short-, medium-, and long-term. Short-term meant “a couple of weeks,” medium-term meant “a couple of years,” and long-term meant “as long as it takes.” It was that far side of the ledger where I wrote down the most intractable problems we were facing—the ones you can’t expect to solve on your own, over a term, perhaps even over a career. That’s where the most important work is. That’s where you take the bigger view—not of the political moment but of the historical one.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“This is how fascism begins,” warned Françoise Giroud, a journalist who served in the French Resistance. “It never says its name. It creeps, it floats. When it reaches the tips of people’s noses, they say: ‘Is this it? You think? Don’t exaggerate!’ And then one day it smacks them in the mouth, and it is too late to get rid of it.”
― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

“He’s an expert at suggesting that someone is a fraud—that you cannot believe this person. Which I believe some psychologists would call “projection.”
― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

“Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“You have to sweat the small stuff, because sometimes it turns out the small stuff is actually the big stuff.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“That’s why I have no patience for anyone saying, I’m giving up on America because America wanted this. We did not. Of the third that voted for Trump, a good part of them voted for him on promises unkept.”
― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

“Implicit bias lives in split seconds. It is the unconscious shorthand that our brains use to help us make a quick judgment about a stranger.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“And if we are lucky enough to be in a position of power, if our voice and our actions can mobilize change, don't we have a special obligation? Being an ally can't just be about nodding when someone says something we agree with - important as that is. It must also be about action. It's our job to stand up for those who are not at the table when life-altering decisions are made. Not just those people who look like us. Not just those who need what we need. Not just those who have gained an audience with us. Our duty is to improve the human condition - in every way we can, for everyone who needs it.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Throughout my career I’ve maintained that people in positions of power must be required to ask of themselves: Who am I not hearing from? Then make it their business to seek those folks out.”
― Kamala Harris, 107 Days

“You don’t add the intractable problems to the list because they are new, but because they are big, because people have been fighting against them for dozens—maybe even hundreds—of years, and that duty is now yours. What matters is how well you run the portion of the race that is yours.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey