You can't disobey the rules every time you disapprove. However, when you're considering something that constitutes an extreme abridgement of your rights, conscience is the court of last resort.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of standing up against unjust rules while acknowledging the need to obey laws that may not seem fair.
Mario Savio's quote captures the tension between following societal rules and the moral obligation to resist when those rules infringe upon fundamental rights. It asserts that while one should generally adhere to the established norms, there are critical moments when personal conscience must take precedence, especially regarding significant violations of justice or individual rights.
In practice
In a speech advocating for civil rights, one could reference this quote to inspire action against unjust laws.
The 'futures' and 'careers' for which American students now prepare are for the most part intellectual and moral wastelands. This chrome-plated consumers' paradise would have us grow up to be well-behaved children. But an important minority of men and women coming to the front today have shown they will die rather than be standardized, replaceable, and irrelevant.
We must travel in the direction of our fear.
It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations.
I cannot bear to live where there is so much injustice and I cannot do something about it. What kind of a torturous life is that?
If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people-a black people-who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization.
Fear and fatigue block the mind. Face both, then courage and confidence flows into you.
I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes - basketball, football - but I was kind of a momma's boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural.
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