This is a book of words spoken from the Spirit that impels us to confront and overcome Suffering, Injustice, and Oppression in all their forms, and to work together in partnership with God and One Another to co-create a better future for All. Be inspired! ~ J
"In the beginning, God..." - Genesis 1
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture of their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
"I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities." - Nelson Mandela
"It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela
"It is not where you start but how high you aim that counts for most." - Nelson Mandela
“Truth never damages a cause that is just." - Mahatma Gandhi
"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you as well." - Jesus
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." - Isaiah 1:17
"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela
“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” — Malcolm X
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The true source of rights is duty. If we all discharge our duties, rights will not be far to seek." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" - Isaiah 58:6
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." - Mahatma Gandhi
"The difference between what we are and what we ought to be is enough to solve all the problems of the world." - Mahatma Gandhi
"The biggest problem with America is not racism or poverty, it's apathy and complacency." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." - Revelation
"The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference." - Elie Wiesel
"The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but it is fear." - Mahatma Gandhi
"As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - Nelson Mandela
“A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.” — John Lewis
“It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.” - Aristotle
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity." - Seneca
"Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right." - Psalm 106:3
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.” — Thurgood Marshall
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." - Jesus
"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." - Jesus
“Love is not a weak, spineless emotion; it is a powerful moral force on the side of justice.” - Bernice King
“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” ― Rosa Parks
"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and the oppressed." - Psalm 82:3
"Cursed is anyone who denies justice to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow." - Deuteronomy 27:19
“When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.” — Fannie Lou Hamer
“I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.” — Muhammad Ali
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."
— Malcom X
"There is no such thing as part freedom." - Nelson Mandela
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." - Jesus
"Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation." - Coretta Scott King
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality." - Desmond Tutu
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite." - Nelson Mandela
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” - Mahatma Gandhi
“A harmonious and properly ordered society is one in which the laws and ways of humanity are conformed to the laws and ways of God." - J
“Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.” - Blaise Pascal
"There are people hurting, there are people suffering, so we have an obligation, a mandate, to do something." - John Lewis
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness." - Mark Twain
“I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” - Angela Davis
“And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? ... It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.” - Coretta Scott King
“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.” - Nelson Mandela
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X
“I am neither a fanatic nor a dreamer. I am a Black man who loves peace, and justice, and loves his people.” - Malcolm X
"We are made for goodness. We are made for love. We are made for friendliness. We are made for togetherness. We are made for all of the beautiful things that you and I know. We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders. All are welcome: black, white, red, yellow, rich, poor, educated, not educated, gay, straight, all, all, all. We all belong to each other." - Desmond Tutu
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.” - Desmond Tutu
“Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system.” - Dorothy Day
“It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say, ‘Wait on time.’” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” - Theodore Roosevelt
"Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin" - Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
— John Lewis
“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The potential for love and the potential for fear are present in every soul, but the potential of love is exceedingly and abundantly greater." - J
“Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.” - Angela Davis
"There is no such thing as seeing how far one can go without being caught, or how far one can go without committing mortal sin." - Dorothy Day
“In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice…, the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Continue to speak out against all forms of injustice to yourselves and others, and you will set a mighty example for your children and for future generations.” - Bernice King
“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” - John Lewis
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” - Unknown
“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.” - Ban Ki-moon
“As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation — either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The hero must always break the rules in order to do what is right." - J
“Love is not passive. It is active, transformative, and just.” - Bernice King
“Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” - John Lewis
"Each one of you has to be God’s microphone. Each one of you has to be a messenger, a prophet." - Oscar Romero
I don’t want to be an anti, against anybody. I simply want to be the builder of a great affirmation: the affirmation of God, who loves us and who wants to save us." - Oscar Romero
"The transcendence that the church preaches is not alienation; it is not going to heaven to think about eternal life and forget about the problems on earth. It’s a transcendence from the human heart. It is entering into the reality of a child, of the poor, of those wearing rags, of the sick, of a hovel, of a shack. It is going to share with them. And from the very heart of misery, of this situation, to transcend it, to elevate it, to promote it, and to say to them, “You aren’t trash. You aren’t marginalized.” It is to say exactly the opposite, “You are valuable.”" - Oscar Romero
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist." - Helder Camara
"Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." - Martin Luther King Jr.
“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.” - John Lewis
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained." - Helen Keller
"He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?" - Micah 6:8
“Why should there be hunger and deprivation in any land, in any city, at any table, when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide all mankind with the basic necessities of life? There is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in human will.” - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph." - Haile Selassie
A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. - Martin Luther King Jr.
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst." - Aristotle
"Justice is a certain rectitude of mind whereby a man does what he ought to do in the circumstances confronting him." - Thomas Aquinas
There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of the law and in the name of justice. - Montesquieu
"It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it." - Maya Angelou
"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
"Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical." - Blaise Pascal
"I think the first duty of society is justice." - Alexander Hamilton
"Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all." - Nelson Mandela
"Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom." - Plato
"It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally non-violent struggle for justice." - Cesar Chavez
"Justice is truth in action." - Benjamin Disraeli
"It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world." - Mary Wollstonecraft
"If you want peace work for justice." - Pope Paul VI
"Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens." - Plato
"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
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela
"The time is always right to do what is right." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lost infinite hope." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our own sins." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"A nation that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man the country turns out." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." - Mahatma Gandhi
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." - Nelson Mandela
"He will bring justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the oppressed of the earth. The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked." - Isaiah 11:4
"The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity." - Desmond Tutu
"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the repressing class are to represent and repress them." - Paulo Freire
"The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption." - Paulo Freire
"If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner." - Nelson Mandela
"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." - Jesus
"The more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled." - Paulo Freire
"Education must begin by teaching people of their value and the value of other people." - Paulo Freire
"When God created humankind, He made them in the likeness of God." - Genesis 5:1
"This is what the Lord says: "Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed." - Isaiah 56:1
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." - Isaiah 43:18-19
"I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying." - Nelson Mandela
"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires." - Nelson Mandela
"Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness." - Corrie Ten Boom
"Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone." - Jesus
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." - Jesus
"You may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial." - Martin Luther King Jr.
“Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.” - Buckminster Fuller
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do one thing every day that scares you." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you’ll be criticized anyway.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward." - Lewis Carroll
"Imagination Is the Only Weapon in the War Against Reality." - Lewis Carroll
“The survival of mankind cannot be secured in isolation from other living beings, such as crawling, swimming, winged and four-legged relatives, as well as plants, trees and minerals. In order to achieve the much needed and desired balance of peace, universal love must be allowed to grow. A love that literally allows every person and thing to blossom, as the power of the sun’s rays helps. So the survival of mankind depends on everyone – not just us natives. Only when we realize that we cannot separate from other living beings on earth do we bring about positive change.
We have to include the unborn up to the seventh generation in our deliberations in advance in order to find our way.” - Reymundo Tigre Perez, medicine man from the Purépechas
In order that men should embrace the truth—not in the vague way they did in childhood, nor in the one-sided and perverted way presented to them by their religious and scientific teachers, but embrace it as their highest law—the complete liberation of this truth from all and every superstition (both pseudo-religious and pseudo-scientific) by which it is still obscured is essential. - Leo Tolstoy
When an individual passes from one period of life to another a time comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but has to understand that although he has outgrown what before used to direct him, this does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and development of humanity. I believe that such a time has now arrived. - Leo Tolstoy
A commercial company enslaved a nation comprising two hundred millions. Tell this to a man free from superstition and he will fail to grasp what these words mean. What does it mean that thirty thousand men, not athletes but rather weak and ordinary people, have subdued two hundred million vigorous, clever, capable, and freedom-loving people? Do not the figures make it clear that it is not the English who have enslaved the Indians, but the Indians who have enslaved themselves? - Leo Tolstoy
New justifications have now appeared in place of the antiquated, obsolete, religious ones. These new justifications are just as inadequate as the old ones, but as they are new their futility cannot immediately be recognized by the majority of men... But by the term 'scientific' is understood just what was formerly understood by the term 'religious': just as formerly everything called 'religious' was held to be unquestionable simply because it was called religious, so now all that is called 'scientific' is held to be unquestionable. - Leo Tolstoy
Be not the destroyers of yourselves. Arise to your true Being, and then you will have nothing to fear. - Krishna
People saw more and more clearly, and now the majority see quite clearly, the senselessness and immorality of subordinating their wills to those of other people just like themselves, when they are bidden to do what is contrary not only to their interests but also to their moral sense. - Leo Tolstoy
For a long time people lived in this obvious contradiction without noticing it. - Leo Tolstoy
..but this truth was so interwoven everywhere with all kinds of falsehoods which distorted it, that finally nothing of it remained but words. - Leo Tolstoy
Of what use is superior knowledge in the one, if he does not endeavour to relieve his neighbour's want as much as his own? - The Hindu Kural
Amid this life based on coercion, one and the same thought constantly emerged among different nations, namely, that in every individual a spiritual element is manifested that gives life to all that exists, and that this spiritual element strives to unite with everything of a like nature to itself, and attains this aim through love. - Leo Tolstoy
Thus the truth—that his life should be directed by the spiritual element which is its basis, which manifests itself as love, and which is so natural to man—this truth, in order to force a way to man's consciousness, had to struggle not merely against the obscurity with which it was expressed and the intentional and unintentional distortions surrounding it, but also against deliberate violence, which by means of persecutions and punishments sought to compel men to accept religious laws authorized by the rulers and conflicting with the truth. - Leo Tolstoy
All that exists is One. People only call this One by different names. - The Vedas
God is love, and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him. - I John