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Quotes by Historian
"In its essence, Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech is one citizen's soul-searing plea with his countrymen""Whites and Blacks""to recognize that racial disparities fueled by unwarranted bigotry were crippling America's ability to shine as a true beacon of democracy in a world filled with people groping their way through suffocating shadows of political turmoil, economic oppression, military mayhem, starvation, and disease."
3
"Got just enough room to be a friend of yours. Oh I hope you got room to be a friend of mine."
3
"A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmareto the jeweled vision of a life started anew."
3
"History may be divided into three movements: what moves rapidly, what moves slowly and what appears not to move at all."
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"Love is our most unifying and empowering common spiritual denominator. The more we ignore its potential to bring greater balance and deeper meaning to human existence, the more likely we are to continue to define history as one long inglorious record of man's inhumanity to man."
3
"Love as a concrete foundation for an authentically functional civilization requires the around-the-clock labors of forgiveness. Without it, Love fails, Friendship fails, Intelligence fails, Humanity: fails."
3
"The word 'survivor' carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women. It also contains a humbling light of recognition that compels many to do whatever they can to help reinforce the efforts of those who might be 'at risk' of not just giving up on their dreams, but of giving up on their continued existence."
3
"In an age when nations and individuals routinely exchange murder for murder, when the healing grace of authentic spirituality is usurped by the divisive politics of religious organizations, and when broken hearts bleed pain in darkness without the relief of compassion, the voice of an exceptional poet producing exceptional work is not something the world can afford to dismiss."
3
"The best of humanity's recorded history is a creative balance between horrors endured and victories achieved, and so it was during the Harlem Renaissance."
3
"Authentic inspiration endows individuals with mental or spiritual energy which they are then able to transform into positive action. It can make all the difference between a man, woman, or child allowing despair to permanently paralyze any dreams they may have for their lives, or, exercising sufficient strength of will to make those dreams a reality."
3
"The music of revelation announces itself to the reader in somber brooding tones or in melodies light as air and one is invited to dance with the most captivating of partners: poetry."
3
"Human beings, in a sense, may be thought of as multidimensional creatures composed of such poetic considerations as the individual need for self-realization, subdued passions for overwhelming beauty, and a hunger for meaning beyond the flavors that enter and exit the physical body."
3
"Democracy is not simply a license to indulge individual whims and proclivities. It is also holding oneself accountable to some reasonable degree for the conditions of peace and chaos that impact the lives of those who inhabit one's beloved extended community."
3
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength."
3
"Poetry looking in the mirror sees art, and art looking in a mirror sings poetry."
3
"Added to the shock of the routine violation of their bodies was the trauma of having to relinquish their children to unknown slave-holders. [W.E.B.] Du Bois considered this physical, mental, and spiritual abuse of black women--with its inevitable result being the destruction of the traditional African family--the highest crime committed by slave-holders and the one thing for which he said he could not forgive them."
3
"We ache with the yearningthat turns half into wholeand offer no excusesfor the beauty of our souls."
3
"As life in general constituted much pain in the form of struggles against poverty, disease, ignorance, and emotional anguish, what more civilized way for people to alleviate the same than by giving themselves to one another as brothers and sisters in deed as well as in word? A society of people hoping to become politically superior needed first to become spiritually valid."
3
"At the edge of madness you howl diamonds and pearls."
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"First steps are always the hardest but until they are taken the notion of progress remains only a notion and not an achievement."
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"When the lyrical muse sings the creative pen dances."
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"Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven's mouth."
3
"Societies that do not eat people are fascinated by those that do."
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"Exhortations to obstruct the operations of Government in detail, should; Exhortations to resist all."
3
"Censorship always defeats it own purpose, for it creates in the end the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion."
3
"The intellectual debility of contemporary conservatism is indicated by its silence on all important matters."
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