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
As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.
Arthur Conan DoyleRead
The pessimist borrows trouble; the optimists lend encouragement.
William Arthur WardRead
Some people have great ideas maybe once or twice in their life, and then they discover electricity or fire or outer space or something. I mean, the kind of brilliant ideas that change the whole world. Some people never have them at all... I get them two or three times a week.
Neil GaimanRead
When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, have you grown old.
Samuel UllmanRead
You're worth something because God says you're worth something-not because of what people think or say about you.
Joyce MeyerRead
Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.
Salvador DaliRead