Robert N. Bellah Quotes

As a human being, I'm concerned about the world that I live in. So, I'm concerned about peace. I'm concerned about - about man's inhumanity to man. I'm concerned about the environment.

Clean water and power is our right as humans on this earth, and for too long, our governments in Africa have failed to provide these things.

I believe in the power of media. I really do. It's my soapbox. And I do have an agenda, because I'm enraged by the limitations forced on people - by poverty, oppression, hatred, fear - and I'm saddened by the kind of loss we all experienced due to the contributions that people cannot make because of their circumstances.

Wealth and want equally harden the human heart.

I believe Aids is the most important issue we face, because how we treat the poor is a reflection of who we are as a people.

If blacks are oppressed in America, why isn't there a black exodus?

History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless.

There are 200 million poor in the world who would gladly take the vow of poverty if they could eat, dress and have a home like I do

Are all humans human, or are some more human than others?

Poverty is curable, but it’s just not done, because it's not profitable. And that is the kind of violence that's perpetuated on humanity.

Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person - ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Pity would be no more, If we did not make somebody poor. Mercy no more could be, If all were happy as we.

Poverty is a plague against which humanity must fight without cease.

Oppression is often the consequence, but seldom or never the means of riches.

What's inspiring me the most [is] injustice. My own growth as a member of the human race, in terms of the veils being lifted, seeing more of the beauty and also the horror. A sense of my own purpose in this life. Love...

A wealthy doctor who can help a poor man, and will not without a fee, has less sense of humanity than a poor ruffian, who kills a rich man to supply his necessities.

The first world is going to have to account for this sort of horrible poverty in our midst. We have to, first of all, become aware of it. We have to take responsibility for it. And then we have to do something about it for our own freedom, for our own salvation, for our own humanity.

I do not know of any divine commands. I do know of most important human ones. I do not know the needs of a god or of another world. . . . I do know that women make shirts for seventy cents a dozen in this one. I do know that the needs of humanity and this world are infinite unending constant and immediate. They will take all our time our strength our love and our thoughts; and our work here will be only then begun.

They were the triumphant and insolent possessors; they had a hall, and a fire, and food and clothing and money, and so they might preach to hungry men, and the hungry men must be humble and listen. They were trying to save their souls- and who but a fool could fail to see that all that was the matter with their souls was that they had not managed to get a decent existence for their bodies?

Those who speak largely of the human condition are usually those most exempt from its oppressions - whether of sex, race, or servitude.

We have more families at risk with the death penalty. It targets the voiceless, the poor, people of color. And so it's important just to understand what your government is doing and how much they are spending.

If life were like a competitive race, some people would be given a flying start and others would line up with weights tied to their ankles.

I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.

It's God's will that millions of people are gonna die this year because of some outmoded economic policies? No, it's not!

Robin Hood had it right.Humanity's deepest wish is to spread the wealth.