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Quotes by Historian
"Any person who considers himself, and intends to remain, a member of Western society inherits the Western past from Athens and Jerusalem to Runnymede and Valley Forge, as well as to Watts and Chicago of August 1968. He may ignore it or deny it, but that does not alter the fact. The past sits back and smiles and knows it owns him anyway."
9
"Her black is beautiful, his society is ugly."
9
"In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record."
9
"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."
9
"Journey through the Power of the Rainbow represents a condensed compendium of literary efforts from a life dedicated to transforming the themes of injustice, grief, and despair that we all encounter during some unavoidable point of our existence into a sustainable life-affirming poetics of passionate creativity, empowered spiritual vision, and inspired commitment."
9
"In writing I am seduced by the sound of words and by the interaction of their sound and sense."
9
"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."
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"Individuals often turn to poetry, not only to glean strength and perspective from the words of others, but to give birth to their own poetic voices and to hold history accountable for the catastrophes rearranging their lives."
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"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."
9
"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."
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"The weak makes excuses, the strong makes changes."
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"I place my fingers upon these keys typing 2,000 dreams per minute and naked of spirit dance forth my cosmic vortex upon this crucifix called language."
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"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."
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"A reformer exhorted children that they would succeed where he and his colleagues had failed with the charge: "Live for that better day."
9
"Respect can only be given to those who have earned it by working for it."
8
"For what is philosophy but an art - one more attempt to give 'significant form' to the chaos of experience?"
8
"There is no shame in not knowing your history, the shame lies in not finding out."
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"Keep your standards even when everyone around you is losing theirs."
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"Whoever is trying to bring you down is already beneath you."
8
"The overpowering unimportance of this MAKES ME SPEECHLESS. Speaker of the House of Representatives Thomas Reed."
8
"Now according to German logic, a declaration of war was found to be unnecessary because of imaginary bombings."
8
"Women who seek advice from single women about getting a man is like asking a homeless man how to be rich."
8
"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."
8
"All of yesterday's ballers are today's road sweepers."
8
"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."
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"But the new generation had tasted the wine of philosophy, and from this time onward the rich youth of Rome went eagerly to Athens and Rhodes to exchange their oldest faith for the newest doubts."
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"We ache with the yearningthat turns half into wholeand offer no excusesfor the beauty of our souls."
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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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"In the days when hyenas of hate suckle the babes of men, and jackals of hypocrisy pimp their mothers' broken hearts, may children not look to demons of ignorance for hope."
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"Talent for oratory can simulate the need for action and even thought."
8
"Only God is in a position to look down upon someone."
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