Minorities Quotes - Page 19

• I've never gone anywhere where the men have come up to my infantile expectations. I always have gone through life constantly being surprised by the extreme, marvelous qualities of a small minority of men. But I can't see the rest of them. They seem awful rubbish.

  Rebecca West

  Men, Expectations, Quality

  4 Copy quote

• In the Islamic Republic the rights of the religious minorities are respectfully regarded.

  Ruhollah Khomeini

  Religious, Islamic, Rights

  Interview for Austrian television in Paris (November 6, 1978), as quoted in "Democracy? I meant theocracy - The most truthful individual in recent history" by Dr. Jalal Matini and Farhad Mafie in "The Iranian", August 5, 2003.

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• Candidates should be extremely cautious in displaying a sense of humor. If he or she tells a joke with a point, there is almost certain to be some minority group offended.

  Jack Germond

  Groups, Sense Of Humor, Should

  4 Copy quote

• Though it is disguised by the illusion that a bureaucracy accountable to a majority of voters, and susceptible to the pressure of organized minorities, is not exercising compulsion, it is evident that the more varied and comprehensive the regulation becomes, the more the state becomes a despotic power as against the individual. For the fragment of control over the government which he exercises through his vote is in no effective sense proportionate to the authority exercised over him by the government.

  Walter Lippmann

  Exercise, Government, Voters

  4 Copy quote

• I come more and more to the conclusion that one must take the side of the minority which is always the more intelligent one.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Intelligent, Sides, Conclusion

  "Conversation with Friedrich von Müller" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, March 6, 1828.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Better to be always in a minority of one with God - branded as madman, incendiary, fanatic, heretic, infidel - frowned upon by "the powers that be," and mobbed by the populace - or consigned ignominiously to the gallows, like him whose "soul is marching on," though his "body lies mouldering in the grave," or burnt to ashes at the stake like Wickliffe, or nailed to the cross like him who "gave himself for the world," - in defence of the RIGHT, than like Herod, having the shouts of a multitude crying, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man!"

  William Lloyd Garrison

  Lying, Men, Voice

  "Valedictory". The last issue of "The Liberator" newspaper, fair-use.org. January 01, 1866.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the minority, and a small one too, is suffered to dictate to the majority, after measures have undergone the most solemn discussions by the representatives of the people, and their will through this medium is enacted into a law, there can be no security for life, liberty, or property; nor, if the laws are not to govern, can any man know how to conduct himself in safety.

  George Washington

  Men, Law, People

  George Washington, Jared Sparks (1836). “The Writings of George Washington: pt. IV. Letters official and private, from the beginning of his presidency to the end of his life: (v. 10) May, 1789-November, 1794. (v. 11) November, 1794-December, 1799”, p.440

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• How could the USA champion individual freedom in the world generally while denying it to an important minority in its own country.

  Dean Acheson

  Country, Usa, Champion

  "Civil Rights in the USA, 1863-1980". Book by David Paterson, Susan Willoughby, Doug Willoughby, 2001.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ours is a golden age of minorities. At no time in the past have dissident minorities felt so much at home and had so much room to throw their weight around. They speak and act as if they were "the people," and what they abominate most is the dissent of the majority.

  Eric Hoffer

  Home, Past, People

  Eric Hoffer (1977). “In our time”, McNally & Loftin Publishers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• This country needs room to grow and expand. In all my own newspapers I read frightful tales of the shameful atrocities being perpetrated on our Democratic minorities in Maine and Vermont. My patience is almost at an end, and if provoked much further I will place both countries under American protection, even if I have to send in my tourists to start trouble so I'll have to send in a force to restore order.

  Gracie Allen

  Country, Order, Maine

  "How to Become President". Book by Gracie Allen, 1940.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Violent resistance against the power of the state is the last resort of the minority in its effort to break loose from the oppression of the majority. ... The citizen must not be so narrowly circumscribed in his activities that, if he thinks differently from those in power, his only choice is either to perish or to destroy the machinery of state.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Thinking, Effort, Choices

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism”

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible.

  Saul Alinsky

  Loyalty, Spring, Rights

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.24, Vintage

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• Recognizing that the world is governed by a minority, the sexually active, and that they hold sway of a huge majority of the nonsexual, those people too young or too old or too poor or too homely or sick or crazy or powerless to be able to afford sexual partners (or the luxury of systematic, sustained and shared introspection, so sexual in its own way). All advertisements and films and songs are addressed to sexuals, to their rash whims and finicky tastes.

  Edmund White

  Song, Crazy, Luxury

  "A Boy's Own Story". Book by Edmund White, 1982.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Exhibitions of minority art are often intended to make the minority itself more aware of its collective experience. Reinforcing the common memory of miseries and triumphs will, it is expected, strengthen the unity of the group and its determination to achieve a better future. But emphasizing shared experience as opposed to the artist's consciousness of self (which includes his personal and unshared experience of masterpieces) brings to the fore the tension in the individual artist between being an artist and being a minority artist.

  Harold Rosenberg

  Art, Determination, Memories

  "Art and Other Serious Matters". Book by Harold Rosenberg. Chapter: "Being Outside", p. 273, 1985.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Although a government study found that men's health was much worse than women's health or the health of any minority group, headlines around the country read: 'Minorities Face Large Health Care Gap.' They did not say: 'Men Face Large Health Care Gap.' Why? Because we associate the sacrifice of men's lives with the saving of the rest of us, and this association leads us to carry in our unconscious an incentive not to care about men living longer.

  Warren Farrell

  Country, Sacrifice, Men

  "The Myth of Male Power". Book by Warren Farrell, 1993.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have a small faction, and they are a minority, who believe they are there to govern. Then there is the majority of us who believe that indeed we are there to govern but more importantly we are there to be an opposition to the Democratic philosophy and the only way to do that is through confrontation.

  Tom DeLay

  Philosophy, Believe, Majority

  Houston Chronicle, April 14, 1991.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ordinary Americans, and especially the small minority active in Democrat and Republican primaries, must learn more of what people across the globe are thinking and saying about the US. For if you follow that, you realise that the erosion of American power is happening faster than most of us predicted -- while the politicians in Washington behave like rutting stags with locked antlers.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Thinking, America, Erosion

  "Americans need to discover how the world sees them" by Timothy Garton Ash, www.theguardian.com. October 15, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The descendants of those who crucified Christ... have taken ownership of the riches of the world, a minority has taken ownership of the gold of the world, the silver, the minerals, water, the good lands, petrol, well, the riches, and they have concentrated the riches in a small number of hands.

  Hugo Chavez

  Taken, Small Numbers, Hands

  Hugo Chavez's Christmas speech at a rehabilitation center, December 24, 2005.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would in fact tend to have more confidence in the outcome of a democratic decision if there was a minority that voted against it, than if it was unanimous... Social psychology has amply shown the strength of this bandwagon effect.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Decision, Psychology, Outcomes

  "Habermas and the Public Sphere". Book by Craig Calhoun, 1993.

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think I have been perfectly clear in saying that I hope Canadians do elect a majority government. I think this cycle of election after election, minority after minority is beginning to put some of the country's interests in serious jeopardy.

  Stephen Harper

  Country, Thinking, Government

  "Harper, under attack in debate, asks for a majority". www.ctvnews.ca. April 12, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Armenia was always a minority nation. The Armenians were annihilated by the Russians and then by the Turks.

  Ernst Kaltenbrunner

  Armenia, Armenians, Nations

  Said to Leon Goldensohn, June 06, 1946. "The Nuremberg Interviews". Book by Leon Goldensohn, 2004.

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• At a minimum if we can just have enough distribution of clout in society so it isn't run by a tiny minority, then at the very least it gives us some room to breathe.

  Jaron Lanier

  Running, Giving, Rooms

  4 Copy quote

• By making college more affordable for all and more accessible for minority students, the first new higher education authorizing legislation in a decade will help strengthen our nation and America's middle class, and spur a new age of innovation and ingenuity in our country.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Country, College, Class

  "Pelosi: Higher Education Bill is Bipartisan Investment in College Affordability and in America's Middle Class". Press release, July 31, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Without the values at the core of Christianity and other world religions, without moral norms that have been shaped over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity. One must respect every minority’s right to be different, but the rights of the majority must not be put into question.

  Vladimir Putin

  World Religions, Other Worlds, People

  Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, en.kremlin.ru. September 19, 2013.

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• History teaches us that there have been but few infringements of personal liberty by the state which have not been justified, as they are here, in the name of righteousness and the public good, and few which have not been directed, as they are now, at politically helpless minorities.

  Harlan F. Stone

  Names, Liberty, Justified

  Minersville School District v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, 1940.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source