Jonathan Kozol Quotes

Going into Somalia, I didn't anticipate how many people's lives would be affected by it. In hindsight, I certainly wish I had taken more time to think about that, but I can't change it.

When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.

There is no man more dangerous, in a position of power, than he who refuses to accept as a working truth the idea that all a man does should make for rightness and soundness, that even the fixing of a tariff rate must be moral.

I've always sensed for myself an obligation to bear witness to my time.

I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify.

From those to whom much is given, much is expected. I have been given much - the love of my family, the faith and trust of the people of New York, and the chance to lead this state. I am deeply sorry that I did not live up to what was expected of me.

It is the duty of the law-giver to deliver to the many the instructions of whose truth he has persuaded himself.

Wherever you see a man who gives someone else's corruption, someone else's prejudice as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us.

I promised never to let the Rwandan Genocide die because I knew the Rwandans didn't have much power internationally and certainly didn't have the resources. I felt it was my duty having witnessed it, and having stayed to witness it, that I had to talk about it and keep it going.

A writer is not a prophet, is not a philosopher; he's just someone who is witness to what is around him. And so writing is a way to... it's the best way to testify, to be a witness.

If I have written too polemically, it is only because of the passionate concern that we consider because it is too late whether we truly know what we are doing.

Let us admit that most of us writers feel an essential aversion to politics. By taking such a position, however, we accept the perverted principle of specialization, according to which some are paid to write about the horrors of the world and human responsibility and others to deal with those horrors and bear the human responsibility for them

I want people to know the truth. That's what drives me. That there is truth in the world to know, and once you know it, you have a responsibility to share it.

'Dhokha' is a film devoid of any political bias. It conveys to the government that when we talk about individuals who are terrorists, we have to first acknowledge that we created them.

This is our fault. My fault as much as the next man's, because even if I was against the war, I didn't do enough to stop it.

No nation is permitted to live in ignorance with impunity

My responsibility to myself, my neighbors, my family and the human family is to try to tell the truth.

You can't run a society or cope with its problems if people are not held accountable for what they do.

The courage we need is not the fortitude to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job for a boss who has usurped power and is acting as an outlaw government. It is the courage at last to face honestly the truth and reality of what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it.

The truth can be hard to take, but we have an obligation to look and see what's going on, and, if we don't like it, a chance to stop going along with it. This important film provides precisely that insight and that opportunity.

I can't leave India helpless. This responsibility must be taken and I will continue to do so. For all good and bad things, it is my responsibility. I do not regret anything. I believe, people of the country have given me the responsibility and I must fulfill it.

Hell is truth seen too lateduty neglected in its season.

Freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. That is why I recommend that the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.

The trouble is that once you see it, you can't unsee it. And once you've seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There's no innocence. Either way, you're accountable.

My overall responsibility is to be truthful. If people pay money to come and see me, looking for something other than that, then they've made a mistake.