Eleanor Roosevelt Quotes

There are people who can look out for other human beings; there are people who can speak up when something is not right and say, 'This is wrong, and something should be done.'

You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral.

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

If, while I hear the wild shriek of the slave mother robbed of her little ones, I do not open my mouth, am I not guilty?

You can only watch injustice go on for so long until you're compelled to say something. To speak out against it.

Some laws are wrong, and we have an obligation to speak out against those laws wherever they are.

I abide where there is a fight against wrong.

I think it is incumbent on all human beings to oppose injustice in every form.

No one who passively endures an injustice against himself has the material in him to struggle for the rights of others. The one who patiently forbears becomes an accessory to the injustice done to others. He who resists the injustice which he himself meets can open up the way to a higher right for others.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Scripture makes it clear to me that there is an obligation to speak out on behalf of those being persecuted.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.

No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice.

I cannot sit by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

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

If we won't fight injustice wherever we see it, then we are not safe from suffering injustice ourselves.

A time comes when silence is betrayal.

Family values stand up to injustice and power outside the household.

We need to do more than just what is right. We need to join together and right what is wrong.

However, some things must be said, and there are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.