Social Equity & Justice

I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that!  Tom Lehrer

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Thomas Jefferson

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.  Robert Green Ingersoll

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.  Nelson Mandela

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.  Albert Einstein

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.  Albert Einstein

The proverb warns that ‘You should not bite the hand that feeds you.’ But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.  Thomas Szasz

Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?   Erich Fromm

The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.  Noam Chomsky

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.  Noam Chomsky

I, I ain’t got a job, and, there’s no work in the city; They, they always try to blame it on the blacks; But it’s really those in power who stab you in the back.  Newtown Neurotics, Living With Unemployment

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.  Martin Luther King Jr.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.  Martin Luther King Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  Martin Luther King Jr.

It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.  Robert F. Kennedy

We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.  Franklin D. Roosevelt

The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning.  Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.  Bertrand Russell

Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.  Voltaire

Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.  Voltaire

Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.  Voltaire

Reason has always existed, but not always in a reasonable form.  Karl Marx

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.  Ralph W. Sockman

The highest result of education is tolerance.  Helen Keller

If you’re uncomfortable about Blacks, you’re a racist; uncomfortable about Jews, you’re an anti-semite; if you’re uncomfortable about sex, you’re a civic leader.  Marty Klein, America’s War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.  John Stuart Mill

Men might as well be imprisoned, as excluded from the means of earning their bread.  John Stuart Mill

The proverb warns that ‘You should not bite the hand that feeds you.’ But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself. Thomas Szasz