Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
Search Quotes tags
Query
Tags
Author
1 2 3 ▲ ▼
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
8bb3ffb Every fool in error can find a passage of scripture to back him up John Howard Griffin
4f719ff Nothing can describe the withering horror of this. You feel lost, sick at heart before such unmasked hatred, not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light. You see a kind of insanity, something so obscene the very obscenity of it (rather than its threat) terrifies you. It was so new I could not take my eyes from the man's face. I felt like saying: "What in God's name are you doing to yourself?" hate humanity John Howard Griffin
e084269 He who is less than just is less than man. John Howard Griffin
fbf0bb2 I'm annoyed by those who love mankind but are discourteous to people. idealism hypocrisy John Howard Griffin
dd16de3 Humanity does not differ in any profound way; there are not essentially different species of human beings. If we could only put ourselves in the shoes of others to see how we would react, then we might become aware of the injustice of discrimination and the tragic inhumanity of every kind of prejudice. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
a723136 It was a little thing, but on top of the other little things, it broke something in me. emotion self-discipline frustration despair self-control John Howard Griffin
5cc1c4b Fear dims even the sunlight. John Howard Griffin
46c651b How can you render the duties of justice to men when they may destroy you? John Howard Griffin
f85efbe This tendency to make laws that are convenient or advantageous rather than right has mushroomed. John Howard Griffin
bc3fab8 for so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man's good intentions toward his fellow man. John Howard Griffin
43d4856 This system of discrimination, an inculcated double standard, may vary in content from culture to culture, but it is always unjust. There are thousands of kinds of injustice but there is only one kind of justice - equal justice for all. To call for a little more justice, or a moderately gradual sort of justice, is to call for no justice. That is a simple truth. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
01c5c71 In reality, the Us-and-Them or I-and-Thou dichotomies do not exist. There is only one universal We - one human family united by the capacity to feel compassion and to demand equal justice for all. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
5ef9799 A love for his child was so profound, it spilled over to all humanity. image-of-god maturation parenthood John Howard Griffin
6e230cc If virtue does not equal powers, powers will be misused. leadership servant-leadership self-discipline humility John Howard Griffin
b988c47 However it might go, I should have no regrets. If I should be reduced to begging in the street, then I should enjoy the feel of pavement beneath my feet and the odors of asphalt and automobile exhausts. Good and bad fortune were equally attractive when viewed in such a context. Hunger was as interesting as satiety. A life without sight was as interesting as life with sight. Who was to say different? Society? The bulk of humanity? They were .. motivational inspirational John Howard Griffin
a124dc5 Your blanks have been filled in far differently from those of a child grown up in the filth and poverty conventional-wisdom culture parenthood John Howard Griffin
74733a1 DESEGREGATE THE BUSES WITH THIS 7 POINT PROGRAM: 1. Pray for guidance. 2. Be courteous and friendly. 3. Be neat and clean. 4. Avoid loud talk. 5. Do not argue. 6. Report incidents immediately. 7. Overcome evil with good. Sponsored by Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Rev. A. L. Davis, Pres. Rev. J. E. Poindexter, Secretary hatred disagreements pacifism John Howard Griffin
9908d3f The music consumed in its blatant rhythm all other rhythms, even that of the heartbeat. I wondered how all this would look to the casual observer, or to the whites in their homes. "The niggers are whooping it up over on Mobile Street tonight," they might say. "They're happy." Or, as one scholar put it, "Despite their lowly status, they are capable of living jubilantly." Would they see the immense melancholy that hung over the quarter, so op.. tags-1959 us-history John Howard Griffin
dff38da But there are differences. The social studies I've read ..." "They don't deal with any basic difference in human nature between black and white," I said. "They only study the effects of environment on human nature. You place the white man in the ghetto, deprive him of educational advantages, arrange it so he has to struggle hard to fulfill his instinct for self-respect, give him little physical privacy and less leisure, and he would after a.. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
e3b0d4d What fragmented individualism really meant was what happened to a black man who tried to make it in this society: in order to succeed, he had to become an imitation white man - dress white, talk white, think white, express the values of middle-class white culture (at least when he was in the presence of white men). Implied in all this was the hiding, the denial, of his selfhood, his negritude, his culture, as though they were somehow shamef.. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
a421465 I spent years," he told me, "studying the phenomenon of love." "And I spend years studying the phenomenon of justice." "At base, we spend years studying the same thing." equality love justice John Howard Griffin
76db216 We've reached a poor state when people are afraid that doing the decent and right thing is going to help the communist conspiracy. justice right-and-wrong John Howard Griffin
61cd166 We led strange, hidden lives. We were advocating one thing: that this country rid itself of the racism that prevented some citizens from living as fully functioning men and as a result dehumanized all men. We were advocating only that this country live up to its promises to all citizens. But since racism always hides under a respectable guise - usually the guise of patriotism and religion - a great many people loathed us for knocking holes .. John Howard Griffin
53b0e54 Eventually, some black thinkers believe, this "separation" may be the shortest route to an authentic communication at some future date when blacks and whites can enter into encounters in which they truly speak as equals and in which the white man will no longer load every phrase with unconscious suggestions that he has something to "concede" to black men or that he wants to help black men "overcome" their blackness." racism negro racist white race separation justice John Howard Griffin
13ca0fb I must have had a dozen rides that evening. They blear into a nightmare, the one scarcely distinguishable from the other. It quickly became obvious why they picked me up. All but two picked me up the way they would pick up a pornographic photograph or book - except that this was verbal pornography. With a Negro, they assumed they need give no semblance of self-respect or respectability. The visual element entered into it. In a car at night .. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
60f767c After the first difficulties in Rochester, New York, I was asked to consult with community leaders. I went and spoke for quite a long time. The leaders were concerned and sincere men. The first question one of them asked after I talked was: "Well, Mr. Griffin, what is the first thing we should do now?" I told him that I had been asked to come and consult with community leaders, and yet I was sitting in a room full of white men. The white ma.. racial-discrimination us-history John Howard Griffin
26856b3 Many otherwise decent men and women could find no other solution. They are willing to degrade themselves to their basest levels to prevent the traditional laborer from rising in status or, to put it bluntly, from "winning," even though what he wins has been rightfully his from the moment he was born into the human race. I" John Howard Griffin
3a7fba4 Didn't Shakespeare say something about 'every fool in error can find a passage of Scripture to back him up'? He knew his religious bigots. John Howard Griffin
c894da9 We shall remain prisoners of culture unless we become aware of the process and force ourselves to confront it and to deprogram it. John Howard Griffin
54f7903 He was one of those young men who possess an impressive store of facts, but no truths. education arrogance John Howard Griffin
6106969 I learned a strange thing... that in a jumble of unintelligible talk, the word "nigger" leaps out with electric clarity. You always hear it and it always stings. And always it casts the person using it into a category of brute ignorance. I thought with some amusement that if these two women only knew what they were revealing about themselves to every Negro on that bus, they would have been outraged." racial-slurs slurs vulgarity ignorance John Howard Griffin
9dcb784 Once again a 'hate stare' drew my attention like a magnet. It came from a middle-aged, heavyset, well-dressed white man. He sat a few yards away, fixing his eyes on me. Nothing can describe the withering horror of this. You feel lost, sick at heart before such unmasked hatred, not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light. You see a kind of insanity, something so obscene the very obscenity of it (r.. John Howard Griffin
fe52904 He was not talking with US, but with his IMAGE of us. stereotypes John Howard Griffin
c8654ef You can't get around what's right, though," he said. "When we stop loving them, that's when they win." equality love peace John Howard Griffin
e1c9bdb I believe that before we can truly dialogue with one another we must first perceive intellectually, and then at the profoundest emotiomal level, that there is no Other - that the Other is simply Oneself in all the significant essentials. This alone is the key that can unlock the prison of culture. It will neutralize the poisons of the stereotype that allow men to go on benevolently justifying their abuses against humanity. John Howard Griffin
3872319 It shows that the most obscene figures are not the ignorant ranting racists, but the legal minds who front for them, who "invent" for them the legislative proposals and the propaganda bulletins. They deliberately choose to foster distortions, always under the guise of patriotism, upon a people who have no means of checking the facts. Their appeals are of regional interest, showing complete contempt for privacy of conscience, and a willingne.. John Howard Griffin
9dfc835 If we could only put ourselves in the shoes of others to see how we would react, then we might become aware of the injustice of discrimination and the tragic inhumanity of every kind of prejudice. John Howard Griffin
1315291 How can you render the duties of justice to men when you're afraid they'll be so unaware of justice they may destroy you? ...especially since their attitude toward their own race is a destructive one. violence civil-rights disunity race-issues John Howard Griffin
24a6673 The delusion lies in the fact that no matter how well we think we know the Other, we still judge from within the imprisoning framework of our own limited cultural criteria, we still speak within the cliche of the stereotype." That" John Howard Griffin
9d0dbef Newspapers play up as sensational every attempt by a Negro to rape a white woman. Yet this white rape of Negro women is apparently a different matter. But it is rape nonetheless, and practiced on a scale that dwarfs the Negro's defaults. The John Howard Griffin
be054a3 We fill too many gutters while we argue unimportant points and confuse issues. hate John Howard Griffin
f39464b The great danger in the South comes precisely from the fact that the public is not informed. Newspapers shirk notoriously their editorial responsibilities and print what they think their readers want. They lean with the prevailing winds and employ every fallacy of logic in order to editorialize harmoniously with popular prejudices. John Howard Griffin
d3beb3b The real story is the universal one of men who destroy the souls and bodies of other men (and in the process destroy themselves) for reasons neither really understands. It is the story of the persecuted, the defrauded, the feared and detested. hatred John Howard Griffin
cfd666e It was the ghetto. I had seen them before from the high altitude of one who could look down and pity. Now I belonged here and the view was different. A first glance told it all. Here it was pennies and clutter and spittle on the curb... Here was the indefinable stink of despair. Here modesty was the luxury. People struggled for it... Here sensuality was escape, proof of manhood for people who could prove it no other way... Here hips drew th.. poverty sadness despair John Howard Griffin
1 2 3 ▲ ▼