Helen Prejean > Quotes

“people are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives”
― Helen Prejean

“In sorting out my feelings and beliefs, there is, however, one piece of moral ground of which I am absolutely certain: if I were to be murdered I would not want my murderer executed. I would not want my death avenged. Especially by government--which can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.”
― Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“There are spaces of sorrow only God can touch.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“[T]here are some human rights that are so deep that we can't negotiate them away. I mean people do heinous, terrible things. But there are basic human rights I believe that every human being has. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the United Nations says it for me. And it says there are two basic rights that can't be negotiated that government doesn't give for good behavior and doesn't take away for bad behavior. And it's the right not to be tortured and not to be killed. Because the flip side of this is that then when you say OK we're gonna turn over -- they truly have done heinous things, so now we will turn over to the government now the right to take their life. It involves other people in doing essentially the same kind of act."

(PBS Frontline: Angel on Death Row)”
― Sister Helen Prejean

“Lavish love on others receive it gratefully when it come to you. Cultivate friendship like a garden. It is the best love of all. ”
― Sister Helen Prejean

“I realize that I cannot stand by silently as my government executes its citizens. If I do not speak out and resist, I am an accomplice.”
― Sister Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“no government is ever innocent enough or wise enough or just enough to lay claim to so absolute a power as death. (p. 21)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Patrick had asked why people wanted to kill Mr. Sonnier.
"Because they say he killed people," Bill had answered.
"But, Dad"," Patrick had asked, "then who is going to kill them for killing him?" (p. 60)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“if we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well. And I end by challenging people to ask themselves whether we can continue to allow the government, subject as it is to every imaginable form of inefficiency and corruption, to have such power to kill. (p. 130)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I saw the suffering and I let myself feel it… I saw the injustice and was compelled to do something about it. I changed from being a nun who only prayed for the suffering world to a woman with my sleeves rolled up, living my prayer.”
― Sister Helen Prejean

“I have no doubt that we will one day abolish the death penalty in America. It will come sooner if people like me who know the truth about executions do our work well and educate the public. It will come slowly if we do not. Because, finally, I know that it is not a question of malice or ill will or meanness of spirit that prompts our citizens to support executions. It is, quite simply, that people don't know the truth of what is going on. That is not by accident. The secrecy surrounding executions makes it possible for executions to continue. I am convinced that if executions were made public, the torture and violence would be unmasked, and we would be shamed into abolishing executions. We would be embarrassed at the brutalization of the crowds that would gather to watch a man or woman be killed. And we would be humiliated to know that visitors from other countries - Japan, Russia, Latina America, Europe - were watching us kill our own citizens - we, who take pride in being the flagship of democracy in the world. (p. 197)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“It would take me a long time to understand how systems inflict pain and hardship in people's lives and to learn that being kind in an unjust system is not enough.”
― Helen Prejean

“I keep thinking of the gifts of my own upbringing, which I once took for granted: I can read any book I choose and comprehend it. I can write a complete sentence and punctuate it correctly. If I need help, I can call on judges, attorneys, educators, ministers. I wonder what I would be like if I had grown up without such protections and supports. What cracks would have turned up in my character?”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Writing is like praying, because you stop all other activities, descend into silence, and listen patiently to the depths of your soul, waiting for true words to come. When they do, you thank God because you know the words are a gift, and you write them down as honestly and cleanly as you can.”
― Helen Prejean

“The death penalty costs too much. Allowing our government to kill citizens compromises the deepest moral values upon which this country was conceived: the inviolable dignity of human persons. (p. 197)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I stand morally opposed to killing: war, executions, killing of the old and demented, the killing of children, unborn and born. . . . I believe that all of life is sacred and must be protected, especially in the vulnerable stages at the beginning of life and its end.”
― Sister Helen Prejean

“...there's no such thing as being apolitical. If we sit back and do nothing, leaving all the policy making to others, that is, in fact, a position of support for the status quo, which is a very political stance to take.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“A person is more than the worst thing he has ever done.”
― Helen Prejean, Doing Time: 25 Years of Prison Writing

“Don't you miss having a man? Don't you want to get married?"
He [Patrick Sonnier] is simple and direct. I'm simple and direct back.
I tell him that even as a young woman I didn't want to marry one man and have one family, I always wanted a wider arena for my love. But intimacy means a lot to me, I tell him. "I have close friends - men and women. I couldn't make it without intimacy."
"Yeah?" he says.
"Yeah," I say. "But there's a costly side to celibacy, too, a deep loneliness sometimes. There are moments, especially on Sunday afternoons, when I smell the smoke in the neighborhood from family barbecues, and feel like a fool not to have pursued a "normal" life. But, then, I've figured out that loneliness is part of everyone's life, part of being human - the private, solitary part of us that no one else can touch." (p. 127)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I guess when you're not awake, you're not awake. Waking up to the suffering of people who are different from us is a long process, and has a whole lot to do with what community we belong to and whose consciousness and life experiences impact our own on a daily basis. I have a hunch I'm going to be waking up until the moment I die.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“Who killed this man [Patrick Sonnier]?
Nobody.
Everybody can argue that he or she was just doing a job - the governor, the warden, the head of the Department of Corrections, the district attorney, the judge, the jury, the Pardon Board, the witnesses to the execution. Nobody feels personally responsible for the death of this man. (p. 101)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking

“If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“I'm taking a fresh look at the American Dream and who gets to live it and who doesn't.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“I watch what I'm doing to see what I believe.”
― Helen Prejean

“It is easy to forgive the innocent. It is the guilty who test our morality. People are more than the worst thing they have ever done.”
― Helen Prejean

“Nonviolence and nonaggression are generally regarded as interchangeable concepts - King and Gandhi frequently used them that way - but nonviolence, as employed by Gandhi in India and by King in the American South, might reasonably be viewed as a highly disciplined form of aggression. If one defines aggression in the primary dictionary sense of "attack," nonviolent resistance proved to be the most powerful attack imaginable on the powers King and Gandhi were trying to overturn. The writings of both men are filled with references to love as a powerful force against oppression, and while the two leaders were not using the term" force" in the military sense, they certainly regarded nonviolence as a tactical weapon as well as an expression of high moral principle." Susan Jacoby (p. 196)”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Maybe that’s another way to talk about “doing God’s will,” a phrase we have always bandied about, sometimes to refer to something we feel we have to do, not necessarily what we would have chosen. But now I’m wondering if it isn’t a matter of becoming more authentic, more attuned to the clear-sighted, natural goodness in every heart that learns to shed the delusions of arrogance and pride. Maybe at the center of it all is the surge of grace that breaks us free of our tight, narcissistic egos. Maybe. Human dynamics are exceedingly complex.”
― Helen Prejean, River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey

“The prospect that a person will be killed according to the policy he promulgates prompts the [priest] to urge clemency, an incomprehensible position logically.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account Of The Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“Well, ma’am that’s hard to do because Vernon Harvey keeps holding these press conferences, mouthin’ off about how he can’t wait to see me fry. Personally, I think the guy is his own worst enemy. He just needs to let it go, man. The girl’s dead now, and there’s nothin’ he can do to bring her back. Even watchin’ me fry ain’t gonna bring her back, but he won’t let it go and he’s just makin’ himself miserable, in my opinion.”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate

“My wife, she’s a good Christian woman, and she supports the death penalty, and believe me, you can’t find a better Christian”
― Helen Prejean, Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate