Edward Said Quotes

There are times … when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again.

We have rebelled against all controls and religions, all laws and judgments which the mighty sought to foist upon us. We kept to our dedication and our missions. By these will the State be judged, by the moral character it imparts to its citizens, by the human values determining its inner and outward relations, and by its fidelity, in thought and act, to the supreme behest: "and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Here is crystallized the eternal law of Judaism, and all the written ethics in the world can say no more. The State will be worthy of its name only if its systems, social and economic, political and legal, are based upon these imperishable words. They are more than a formal precept which can be construed as passive or negative: not to deprive, not to rob, not to oppress, not to hurt.

A human being can be good or bad or right or wrong, maybe. But how can you say a person is illegal? You just can't. That's all there is to it.

The idea of "human rights," for example - sometimes it bothers me. Not in itself, but because the concept of human rights has replaced the much grander idea of justice.

The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

It is justice not charity that is wanting in the world.

This could never be a crime in any society which deems itself enlightened.

Is it right for us, as a society, to do a thing – hang a man – which none of us individually would be prepared to do or even witness? The answer is 'no, not in a civilized society

Justice, which most human beings interpret essentially as fairness, is demonstrably a concept of importance to people all over the world.

All human beings are intrinsically valuable, and the intentional taking of human life by private persons is always wrong.

I think I'm a humanist. I believe all humans should have equal rights to live, express, flourish, love and dissent, irrespective of their gender, caste, class, socio-economic strata, disabilities, political stance, religion or faith.

To do injustice is more disgraceful than to suffer it.

Poetry and slave trading cannot be bedfellows. That's where I stand.

Jesus told us that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us.

Humanism involves far more than the negation of supernaturalism. It requires an affirmative philosophy . . . translated into a life devoted to one's own improvement and the service of all mankind.

When justice has spoken, humanity must have its turn.

No nation has the right to bring about a revolution, even though such a change may be most urgently needed, if the price is the blood of one single innocent individual.

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion.

It is better to have a war for justice than peace in injustice.

Justice is the great interest of man on earth.

In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.

I think justice is important because there are many injustices in the world and I hate injustice.

The final arbitrator in philosophy is not how we think but what we do.

The law, for all its failings, has a noble goal - to make the little bit of life that people can actually control more just. We can't end disease or natural disasters, but we can devise rules for our dealings with one another that fairly weigh the rights and needs of everyone, and which, therefore, reflect our best vision of ourselves.