I believe that each person is more than the worst thing they've ever done.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the idea that individuals should not be defined by their worst actions.
Bryan Stevenson asserts that every person has inherent worth that transcends their mistakes or wrongdoings. He believes that our identities cannot be encapsulated by our failures and that everyone deserves compassion and the opportunity for redemption, emphasizing the importance of understanding the complexities of human nature and the potential for change.
In practice
In a speech on criminal justice reform, share this quote to highlight the need for empathy.
That's my mission: I really want to get in the heads and hearts of kids and persuade them that they can believe things they haven't seen, they can do things that maybe others haven't done before them, that they are more than their worst acts.
We all have a responsibility to create a just society
One of the things that pains me is we have so tragically underestimated the trauma, the hardship we create in this country when we treat people unfairly, when we incarcerate them unfairly, when we condemn them unfairly.
Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when other people are quiet.
I grew up in a segregated community: I couldn't go to the public schools, beaches, certain parts of town.
If we had done the work that we should have done in the 20th century to combat our history of racial inequality, no one could win national office after demonizing people because they're Mexican or Muslim. We would be in a place where we would find that unacceptable.
I was a queen, and you took away my crown; a wife, and you killed my husband; a mother, and you deprived me of my children. My blood alone remains: take it, but do not make me suffer long.
These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.
When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, 'What can women do in boxing?' I took it as a challenge. If men can do it, why can't women? And I became a world champion before my marriage.
Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to life as long as God himself
Let's cool it brothers . . . Spoken to his assassins, three men who stabbed him 16 times.
The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.
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