Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.
Thurgood MarshallRead
I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Thurgood Marshall emphasizes the importance of patience and gradual change over time.
In this quote, Thurgood Marshall reflects on the concept of gradualism, suggesting that meaningful progress in life takes time and cannot be rushed. He implies that after a lifetime of experiences and changes over nearly a century, one should appreciate the slow, steady advancements rather than expect immediate outcomes.
Themes
GradualChangeProgressPatienceExperience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of persistence in social justice movements.
More from Thurgood Marshall
All quotes βThe United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.
Thurgood MarshallRead
I cannot accept this invitation [to celebrate the bicentenial of the Constitution], for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever 'fixed' at the Philadelphia Convention... To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]
Thurgood MarshallRead
When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel and empty mockery. If not remedied, the scandalous state of our present system of capital punishment will cast a pall of shame over our society for years to come. We cannot let it continue.
Thurgood MarshallRead
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
Thurgood MarshallRead
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
Thurgood MarshallRead
Similar quotes
The greatest evil that can befall man is that he should come to think ill of himself.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
I am overcome by my own amazing sloth...Can you please forgive me and believe that it is really because I want to do something well that I don't do it at all?
Elizabeth BishopRead
I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the best I have been, which is when I have been midly manic. When I am my present "normal" self, I am far removed from when I have been my liveliest, most productive, most intense, most outgoing and effervescent. In sort, for myself, I am a hard act to follow.
Kay Redfield JamisonRead
For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.
PlutarchRead
All you have to do, I tell myself, is keep your mouth shut and look stupid. It shouldn't be that hard.
Margaret AtwoodRead
The most important thing to do is really listen.
Itzhak PerlmanRead