Cornel West

It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.

John Coltrane was an addict; Billie Holiday was an addict; Eugene O'Neill was an addict. What would America be without addicts and post-addicts who make such grand contributions to our society?

Faith is stepping out on nothing and landing on something.

Justice is what love looks like in public.

I want to be a jazzman until the day I die. To help keep that motion, momentum and movement going, for myself, for my students, for the people who hear me. Oh sure, some days you look around at this country and look at the evidence and think, Oh Lord, don't look good. But you keep moving. You gotta keep moving.

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)

I must feel the fire of my soul so my intellectual blues can set others on fire.

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public

liberty, which means resisting all forms of cultural authoritarianism, be it from the right wing church, black ideologues, black nationalists, or mainstream white media. We have to accent liberty and freedom of expression and thought in all their forms.