Walker Evans Quotes

Everyone has a responsibility towards this larger family of man, but especially if you're privileged, that increases your responsibility.

I came from a family who believed in the “Rights of Man,” who believed that in order to justify the sort of luxurious life that the majority of us have, related to the whole world, that you had to do something.

I think, collectively, we should be paying more attention to what is going on around us in the world among people who don't have the advantages that we have.

Every right implies a responsibility; Every opportunity, an obligation, Every possession, a duty.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

I don't want any injustice brought against the bullies. Bullies just don't know any better. Anyone who is crying about police brutality or victimization as an adult needs to stop it and realize the privileges we have in this country.

I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial.

We live in a prosperous country. And our prosperity is not only a blessing—it’s also an obligation.

We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.

Our rulers do wrong from choice and right from necessity.

If you accept the privilege of public service, you had better understand the responsibilities of public service.

Because market forces and institutions are ethically indifferent, they require a deliberative, communal intelligence to prevent extreme injustice.

I do not feel that I have any duty to seek a political nomination, in spite of the fact that many have urged to the contrary. Because of this belief I shall not do so.

The possession of wealth does not confer upon the wealthy the right to take advantage of the less fortunate.

If you're the person whose problems were solved when you were born, your job is to try and help the people who aren't in that situation. It's very easy to say you're tired of political discussion when all of your problems are solved. I keep trying to think of it that way.

I canceled the Russian shows because, from the days of the first Dire Straits album, I've supported Amnesty International. It's not a good thing to read about people being jailed for no reason, so I raised my hand and made a small objection. It was good to do - but where do you stop?

There are very few who have the privileges I have, and, therefore, it is essential that we give back to society.

I've been given benefits from the day I was born. A loving family. A great education. So I see it as an obligation, as a Christian and as a human being, to help.

I've been raised and taught to believe that privilege should lead to responsibility - in fact to greater responsibility.

'Article 15' actually is not about the Dalits. It is about us privileged people. What is it that we have done, what is it that we have been doing and what is it that we should be doing?

I said to my children, 'I'm going to work and do everything that I can do to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are what they ought to be.

Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.

But what right had I to these highest joys, when all around me was nothing but misery and struggle for a moldy bit of bread; when whatsoever I should spend to enable me to live in that world of higher emotions must needs be taken from the very mouths of those who grew the wheat and had not bread enough for their children?

We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I don't believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us.

Those of us that get to a certain level, we have to start giving back to our communities, giving information it's something that you have to do. It's either realize that you're a great individual by nature and move towards that or just accept the white man telling you: 'you're never going to prosper, this world isn't meant for you to prosper, we have privilege, you don't, that's it.'