Jean Vanier Quotes

We shall suffer no attachment to literature, no taste for abstract discussion, no love of purely intellectual theories, to seduce us from our devotion to the cause of the oppressed, the down trodden, the insulted and injured masses of our fellow men.

I'm a political poet - let us say a 'human' poet, a poet that's concerned with the plight of people who suffer. If words can be of assistance, then that's what I'm going to use.

At the moment of greatest love, there is greatest fear, and at the moment of enormous repression, there is resistance, and therefore a chance at revolutionary change.

The hope of remaking the world is indispensable in the struggle of oppressed men and women.

Be loving, and you will never want for love; be humble, and you will never want for guiding.

Certain members of the oppressor class join the oppressed in their struggle for liberation.

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

We happen to be the vanguard of that revolutionary struggle because we are the most dispossessed.

Compassionate action emerges from the sense of openness, connectedness, and discernment you have created.

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

Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.

The mother's battle for her child with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and in the passion for survival.

For me, love is not about froufrou New Age-ism. It's about a way of living and honoring the interconnectedness of life and accepting our responsibility and our power to change the world for the better.

Fear and Hope — those are the names of the two great passions which rule the race of man, and with which revolutionists have to deal; to give hope to the many oppressed and fear to the few oppressors

With the poor people of this world I will cast my lot and share their fate.

While there is a lower class, I am in it. While there is a criminal element, I am of it. And while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

Peoples, hear the signal! Arise, for the last battle The International Fights for the Rights of Man! No higher being can save us, No God, no Kaiser, nor tribune Saving us from misery we ourselves alone must do!

No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not.

Black prophetic fire is the hypersensitivity to the suffering of others that generates a righteous indignation that results in the willingness to live and die for freedom.

If you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That's not going to happen if you care only about yourself.

I feel that my purpose is to shed light on some of the darker sides of our world, and to lend a hand and a voice to people struggling.

The condition of truth, is to allow suffering to speak. Which means attend to suffering of the least of these, of the orphan, the widow, the poor, the working people, the gay brother, the lesbian sister, the transgender, the black people.

I see a world in the future in which we understand that all life is related to us and we treat that life with great humility and respect. I see us as well as social creatures, and when I began to look back and say, ‘what is the fundamental bottom line for us as social creatures?’I couldn’t believe it because it seemed so hippy dippy, but it was Love. Love is the force that makes us fully human.

Because love is an act of courage, not of fear, love is a commitment to others. No matter where the oppressed are found, the act of love is commitment to their cause--the cause of liberation.

To be without love is to be without grace, what matters most in life. We is so much better than I.