Maxine Kumin Quotes

Every time we witness an act that we feel to be unjust and do not act, we become a party to injustice.

People who won't help others in trouble "because they got into trouble through their own fault" would probably not throw a lifeline to a drowning person until they learned whether that person fell in through his or her own fault or not.

Every generation is confronted anew with the task not to look the other way when injustice occurs. ... Everyone is responsible for what he does and co-responsible for what he lets happen.

If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed.

Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest.

We don't consider the roles that we're taking in making the world the way it is.

That's the difference between governments and individuals. Governments don't care, individuals do.

There is no justice in the world unless we make it..

It's indifference and ignorance that stops people from doing the right thing.

Silence is complicity. I believe that.

Just as we demand that people take responsibility for their actions, we as a society must take responsibility for fighting injustice.

When you see corruption, when you see injustice, you speak up. You don't just shut up and say it's none of my business.

I don't think any country is perfect. It's our responsibility to do the best we can do to change the things we don't like. I think that's part of social responsibility, and everybody is going to do that in their own way.

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.'

A common lament of the World War II generation is the absence today of personal responsibility

A man who knows a thing, who is aware of a given danger, and sees the possibility of a remedy with his own eyes, has the duty and obligation, by God, not to work 'silently,' but to stand up before the whole public against the evil and for its cure.

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.

All that means to me is that people who have a vision of a better world have a responsibility to open their eyes, to pay attention, to act on what the moment demands, and to be humble about that action.

What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.

If your voice is heard by more people because you've earned some kind of name and fame, your silence on an issue of urgent moral importance is even more of a betrayal. Privilege is obligation.

Passivity is the same as defending injustice.

We should demand his blood not from the Arabs of Gaza but from ourselves. Let us make our reckoning today.

There are two freedoms - the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.

A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.