We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost.
Interpretation
This quote signifies the triumph of truth and justice over irrational fears and biases.
David Boies highlights the importance of confronting and challenging fear and prejudice in society. The quote emphasizes that when subjected to scrutiny and reason—like being put on trial—these negative forces cannot withstand the weight of truth, ultimately emphasizing the power of justice and understanding in overcoming societal issues.
In practice
During a speech on social justice, this quote can support the importance of confronting biases.
One of the things that the court held in Brown v. Board of Education is that government can't impose a badge of inferiority on some of its citizens. Yet that is exactly what Proposition 8 does with respect to gay and lesbian couples in California.
It's terribly important that we extend the promise of equality that the Supreme Court and that the district court articulated in the DOMA case and in the Perry case to all Americans in all 50 states.
The very purpose of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution is to protect minority rights against majority voters. Every court decision that strikes down discriminatory legislation, including past Supreme Court decisions, affirming the fundamental rights to marry the person you love, overrules a majority decision.
Unlike people of my generation, my children and my grandchildren have grown up living with, knowing, people who were outwardly gay and lesbian. And they have learned that they're just like us... And when you see that they're just like us, the rationale for discrimination melts away.
We're now segregating our schools based on economics; we're segregating our schools based on where a child's parents live. And it has the same corrosive effect of destroying people's opportunity as racial segregation did.
Many of us reject all of the inferior meanings and connotations that others project onto femininity - that it is weak, artificial, frivolous, demure, and passive - because for us, there has been no act more bold and daring than embracing our own femininity. In a world that is awash in antifeminine sentiment, we understand that embracing and empowering femininity can potentially be one of the most transformative and revolutionary acts imaginable.
Faster, Faster, until the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death.
I'm not afraid of dying I'm afraid of not trying
When you speak up about any sense of unfairness or injustice, you're told that you're overreacting, you're too angry, too silly-shut up already. It takes a tremendous amount of fortitude to be able to live in this world as a woman, let alone a woman who wants things to change.
He could beat anything, he thought, because no thing could hurt him if he did not care.
The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.
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