Quotes Inspired by Social Justice

The following is a list of quotes that inspire the continuation of a social justice agenda:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Institute for Cultural Studies (2008)

"It is from the 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 (1966)

"Some believe there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills — against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. 'Give me a place to stand,' said Archimedes, 'and I will move the world.' These men moved the world, and so can we all"
Robert F. Kennedy (1966)

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)

"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced."
James Baldwin

"We are each like all other people, like some other people, and like no other people."
Pederson & Leong (1997)

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."
Harvey Milk (1977)

"Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
Mahatma Gandhi

"The ultimate aim of production is not the production of goods, but the production of free human beings associated with one another on terms of equality."
John Dewey

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings."
- Nelson Mandela

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

"If you come here to help me, then you are wasting your time. But if you come here because your liberation is bound up in mine, then let us begin."
- Lila Watson

"If the moderates of the white South fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1958)

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