Quotes on Social Justice

More money is put into prisons than into schools. That, in itself, is the description of a nation bent on suicide. I mean, what is more precious to us than our own children? We are going to build a lot more prisons if we do not deal with the schools and their inequalities.

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.

Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.

A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.

Almost certainly, however, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind.

Without food, man at most can live but a few weeks; without it all other components of social justice are meaningless.

The war against hunger is truly mankind's war of liberation.

The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth.

Women want to be free to choose from the same range of options that men take for granted. In our quest for equal pay, equal access to education and opportunities, we have made great strides. But until women can move freely and think freely in their homes, on the streets, in the workplace without the fear of violence, there can be no real freedom.

It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.

Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.

I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.

Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We're not inherently anything but human.

No greater injury can be done to any youth than to let him feel that because he belongs to this or that race he will be advanced in life regardless of his own merits or efforts.

A great state is a well-blended mash of something of all the people and all of none of the people. The liquor of statecraft is distilled from the mash you got.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

In everything that moves through the universe, I see my own body, and in everything that governs the universe, my own soul. All men are my brethren, and all things my companions.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

The boundaries of democracy have to be widened so as to include economic equality also. This is the great revolution through which we are all passing.

Cannot the nation that has absorbed ten million foreigners into its political life without catastrophe absorb ten million Negro Americans into that same political life at less cost than their unjust and illegal exclusion will involve?

Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.