The challenge throughout has been to tell what I view as the truth about racism without causing disabling despair.

- Derrick Bell

Courage is a decision you make to act in a way that works through your own fear for the greater good as opposed to pure self-interest. Courage means …

- Derrick Bell

Courage is a finite resource, it is exhausted by the terrors we face.

- Derrick Bell

Black people are the magical faces at the bottom of society's well. Even the poorest whites, those who must live their lives only a few levels above…

- Derrick Bell

Resistance is a powerful motivator precisely because it enables us to fulfill our longing to achieve our goals while letting us boldly recognize and …

- Derrick Bell

Few whites are ready to actively promote civil rights for blacks.

- Derrick Bell

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

- Derrick Bell

Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor.

- Derrick Bell

Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.

- Derrick Bell