L Jeff > L's Quotes

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#1

“There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. (Cambridge University Press (September 29, 1989)”
― Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

tags: criminal-justice, criminal-justice-system, injustice

219 likes

#2

“If the system turns away from the abuses inflicted on the guilty, then who can be next but the innocents?”
― Michael Connelly, The Concrete Blonde

tags: guilt, injustice, innocence, justice, police, system

36 likes

#3

“I was astonished, bewildered. This was America, a country where, whatever its faults, people could speak, write, assemble, demonstrate without fear. It was in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. We were a democracy...

But I knew it wasn't a dream; there was a painful lump on the side of my head...

The state and its police were not neutral referees in a society of contending interests. They were on the side of the rich and powerful. Free speech? Try it and the police will be there with their horses, their clubs, their guns, to stop you.

From that moment on, I was no longer a liberal, a believer in the self-correcting character of American democracy. I was a radical, believing that something fundamental was wrong in this country--not just the existence of poverty amidst great wealth, not just the horrible treatment of black people, but something rotten at the root. The situation required not just a new president or new laws, but an uprooting of the old order, the introduction of a new kind of society--cooperative, peaceful, egalitarian.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

tags: american-society, authoritarianism, bill-of-rights, constitution, democracy, egalitarianism, failed-liberalism, first-amendment, free-speech, injustice, police, power-interests, radical-politics, usa

106 likes

#4

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

tags: injustice

1748 likes

#5

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”
― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

tags: evil, injustice, justice, morality

596 likes

#6

“Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.”
― Bonnie Myotai Treace

tags: buddhism, compassion, energy, harm, injustice, insanity, power, practice, rage

357 likes

#7

“Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
― Honore de Balzac

tags: government, injustice, law

448 likes

#8

“If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”
― Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

tags: injustice, poverty, social-institutions, society

430 likes

#9

“Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the bank either. Just refuse to bear them.”
― William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

tags: honor, injustice

214 likes

#10

“We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.”
― Lydia Maria Child

tags: classism, imperialism, injustice, oppression, racism, rationalization, sexism

111 likes

#11

“Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.”
― Voltaire

tags: injustice, speaking, thinking, thoughts

89 likes

#12

“Liberalism, contrary to popular belief, is facing backward in considering the injustice of its ancestors. Conservatism, contrary to popular belief, is facing forward in considering the psychology of its descendants. Definitively, it seems in the modern world that neither side really knows which direction it's facing, and men of the sharpest judgment are simply turned off from picking either of the poisons.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

tags: ancestry, backwards, conservatism, descendant, different-perspective, direction, forwards, injustice, liberalism, perspective

23 likes

#13

“To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a paradox. People eventually get sick of waiting, take a chance on someone, and by the art of commitment become soulmates, which takes a lifetime to perfect.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

tags: chances, commitment, courtship, dating, faithfulness, friendship, love, marriage, mates, patience, relationships, risk-taking, soulmates, waiting-for-true-love

1886 likes

#14

“Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”
― Criss Jami

tags: agenda, bad-influence, compulsive-liar, controlling, craftsman, deception, destruction, dishonest, influence, lies, manipulation, media, mislead, slander, speak, true

1698 likes

#15

“Grudges are for those who insist that they are owed something; forgiveness, however, is for those who are substantial enough to move on.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

tags: character, forgiveness, grudge, grudges, holding-grudges, move-on, moving-on, owe, owed, peace, peace-of-mind, revenge, strength, strength-of-character, substance, substantial, unforgiving, vengeance

1290 likes

#16

“Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

tags: art, battle, belief, conversation, creativity, expression, opinions, self-expression, speech, speechless

303 likes

#17

“What is a genius? A person who demands little to nothing from others, but is often found extremely difficult to have around.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

tags: complex, creative, different, difficulties, distinction, envy, genius, genius-distinction, independent, independent-thought, inferiority, inferiority-complex, intimidating, misunderstanding, odd, privacy, self-sufficiency, simplicity, superiority

249 likes

#18

“The first ingredient to being wrong is to claim that you are right. Geniuses have a knack for raising new questions. Hence by the public they are either admired for their creativity or, even more commonly so, detested for disturbing the daily peace of mind.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

tags: admiration, detested, disruption, disturbance, genius, ingredients, peace-of-mind, questioning

116 likes

#19

“In order to share one's true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

tags: brilliance, determination, faith, first-impression, fool, foolish, genius, geniuses, glance, illusion, mistaken, mistaken-identity, misunderstood, originality, perseverance, risk, taking-risks, wheels

203 likes

#20

“In Paris there are two dens, one for thieves, the other for murderers. The den of thieves is the Stock Exchange; the den of murderers is the Courthouse.”
― Petrus Borel, Champavert Le Lycanthrope

tags: capitalism, injustice, justice, poverty, rich, wealth

26 likes

#21

“The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

tags: commandeering, concentration-of-power, courtroom, domination, elite, injustice, power

19 likes

#22

“If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.”
― Angela Davis

180 likes

#23

“When Obama was elected president, a prisoner said “one black man in the White House doesn’t make up for one million black men in the Big House.”
― Angela Y. Davis

108 likes

#24

“Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.”
― Mark Twain

tags: heroes

308 likes

#25

“To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

tags: clever, courage, courageous, crazy, death, definition, hero, heroes, heroic, heroism, inspirational, life, living, living-life-to-the-fullest, motivational, soldier, stand, stand-out, success, warrior, winning

212 likes

#26

“Our culture has filled our heads but emptied our hearts, stuffed our wallets but starved our wonder. It has fed our thirst for facts but not for meaning or mystery. It produces "nice" people, not heroes.”
― Peter Kreeft, Jesus-Shock

tags: catholicism, christianity, culture, culture-critique, heroes, jesus-shock, philosophy, spirituality, theology

128 likes

#27

“When you're truly awesome, you know that it's actually a burden and wish day after day to be relieved of such a curse. Think of about 95% of the superheroes.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

tags: awesome, burden, curse, heroes, superhero, wish

78 likes

#28

“People are not born heroes or villains; they’re created by the people around them.”
― Chris Colfer

tags: heroes, villains

150 likes

#29

“You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something.”
― Paul Gallico

tags: heroes, humanity, villains

96 likes

#30

“You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.”
― Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

tags: father, heroes, son

77 likes

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