Patricia Roberts Harris Quotes

Use power to help people.

I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: "Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden of every race and language and color.

I've personally demanded that tyrants let their people go. I've tried to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, protect the elderly and infirm, and defend the needy from the aggressively greedy. I've led a blessed life. What a kick for a kid from the projects.

When we see people that are impoverished and people who are dealt an unfair hand, then if we have the power to help them, we should try to do that.

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.

If it was all about me, I'd do a whole lot of pop records, make a whole lot of money, just rake in the dough. But it's never been all about me. It's all about being a voice for the voiceless. People who can't speak for themselves, who don't have a mic, don't have a say.

We are privileged. There are poor people out there. We must to do something to make them privileged.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

He is the richest man who enriches his country most; in whom the people feel richest and proudest; who gives himself with his money; who opens the doors of opportunity widest to those about him; who is ears to the deaf, eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

It's not a bad thing fighting for equality and helping the poor. It's not a bad thing to have on your professional tombstone: 'He believed in equality and he helped the poor.'

May God be my witness that there will not be a poor man in my Czardom... and even to my last shirt I will share with all.

Each one of our ideas should benefit the people with less power than us.

Though we cannot relieve all the distressed, we should relieve as many as we can.

We shall never desist from working for the common good, helping one another, and even our enemies, till our helping hand is stricken with age

Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of the poor Only as free as a padlocked prison door Only as strong as our love for this land Only as tall as we stand!

We are not here in this world to find elegant solutions, pregnant with initiative, or to serve the ways and modes of profitable progress. No, we are here to provide for all those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves. That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth

Charity and philanthropy are not justice.

You’ve got to help people that are downtrodden and poor, and I just think that that’s part of our culture. You’ve got to help people that can’t help themselves.

Working with Operation Smile is a completely life-altering experience. It is truly inspiring to be a part of something with so many unique individuals who come together for the greater good of helping others.

I've always been passionate about the concept of helping the underdog. It just doesn't make sense to me as to what kind of person would take a huge platform and not use it to do something, to change something, to help people.

I choose to identify with the underprivileged, I choose to give my life for the hungry, I choose to give my life for those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity . . . this is the way I'm going. If it means suffering, I'm going that way. If it means dying for them, I'm going that way, because I heard a voice saying DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS.

What good is it if the Eucharistic table is overloaded with golden chalices when your brother is dying of hunger. Start by satisfying his hunger and then with what is left you may adorn the altar as well.

Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows.

I just feel that I'm compelled; that I have a responsibility to give back to those less fortunate.