James Russell Lowell Quotes

I grew up with injustice and could do nothing about it. But once in America, I had freedom of choice.

There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.

Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

No people will be truly free until all are free.

Liberty without equality is a name of noble sound and squalid result.

I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.

Visibility doesn't always equal freedom.

The cry of the Have-Nots has never been "give us our hearts," but always "get off our backs"; they ask not for love but for breathing space.

Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man ... the highest joy is to fight by the side of those who for any reason of their own making or ours, are unable to develop to full human stature.

I'm not going to sit around and be peace and love with somebody's boot on my neck.

Freedom and opportunity are precious gifts and the purpose of our politics is to expand them, for all our people.

Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman.

Speaking out is important for me because everyone should be treated equally.

The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man's right to his body, or woman's right to her soul.

The freer that women become, the freer men will be. Because when you enslave someone, you are enslaved.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

Small use it will be to save democracy for the race if we cannot save the race for democracy.

I have spent all my life advocating on behalf of the poor, oppressed and marginalized. As a social justice and human rights activist, and now as President of the Republic of Malawi, I have a deep appreciation for the challenges of those on the margins of society.

All I demand for the black man is, that the white people shall take their heels off his neck, and let him have a chance to rise by his own efforts.

The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and of the oppressed.

Freedom is not enough.

For most of the world, civil and political rights... come as luxuries that are far away in the future.

Until we are all free, we are none of us free.

If it is right for men to fight for their freedom, and God knows what the human race would be like today if men had not, since time began, fought for their freedom, then it is right for women to fight for their freedom and the freedom of the children they bear.

The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.