Minorities Quotes - Page 36

• [Christian rebellion] arises from the doctrine of mankind made in the image of God, and therefore protests against all forms of dehumanization. It sets itself against the social injustices which insult God the Creator, seeks to protect human beings from oppression and longs to liberate them… it protests against every authoritarian regime, whether of the left or of the right, which discriminates against minorities, denies people their civil rights, forbids the free expression of opinions or imprisons people for their views alone.

  John Stott

  Christian, Rights, Views

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• Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us to restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Generations, Purpose, Heritage

  Theodore Roosevelt (2010). “The Green Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt in Appreciation of Wilderness, Wildlife, and Wild Places”, p.359, Cambria Press

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• Persons of genius, it is true, are, and are always likely to be, a small minority; but in order to have them, it is necessary to preserve the soil in which they grow.

  John Stuart Mill

  Order, Soil, Genius

  John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, John Troyer (2003). “The Classical Utilitarians: Bentham and Mill”, p.200, Hackett Publishing

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• Rights mean you have a right to your life. You have a right to your liberty, and you should have a right to keep the fruits of your labor....I, in a way, don’t like to use those terms: gay rights, women’s rights, minority rights, religious rights. There’s only one type of right. It’s the right to your liberty.

  Ron Paul

  Religious, Mean, Gay

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• One of the most unattractive human traits, and so easy to fall into, is resentment at the sudden shared popularity of a previously private pleasure. Which of us hasn't been annoyed when a band, writer, artist or television series that had been a minority interest of ours has suddenly achieved mainstream popularity? When it was at a cult level we moaned at the philistinism of a world that didn't appreciate it, and now that they do appreciate it we're all resentful and dog-in-the-manger about it.

  Stephen Fry

  Dog, Fall, Artist

  Stephen Fry (2012). “The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography”, p.204, The Overlook Press

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• Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often taken at face value. The persistent minority forces the others to process the relevant information more mindfully. Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Taken, Thoughtful, Thinking

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• History has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith.

  R.J. Rushdoony

  Majority, Dedicated

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• Lastly, tea--unless one is drinking it in the Russian style--should be drunk WITHOUT SUGAR. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tea-lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.

  George Orwell

  Drinking, Beer, Drunk

  George Orwell, Peter Hobley Davison, Ian Angus, Sheila Davison (1998). “Smothered under journalism: 1946”

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• What an ironic tragedy that an affluent, “Christian” minority in the world continues to hoard its wealth while hundreds of millions of people hover on the edge of starvation!

  Ronald J. Sider

  Christian, People, Ironic

  Ronald J. Sider (2015). “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity”, p.25, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• I do not write for a select minority, which means nothing to me, nor for that adulated platonic entity known as ‘The Masses’. Both abstractions, so dear to the demagogue, I disbelieve in. I write for myself and for my friends, and I write to ease the passing of time.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Writing, Mean, Ease

  Norman Thomas Di Giovanni, Jorge Luis Borges, Anglo-Argentine Society (1988). “In memory of Borges”, Not Avail

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• I may have no idea what I'm talking about," I said, a little ticked off now. "But we're all a part of a minority waiting for a majority to pull their heads out of their asses.

  Chris Colfer

  Talking, Ideas, Waiting

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• Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as "bad luck.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Thinking, Creating

  Robert A. Heinlein (1987). “Time Enough for Love”, p.228, Penguin

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• Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Speak Your Mind, Years, People

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• Now let's take up the minorities in our civilisation, shall we? Bigger the population, the more minorities. Don't step on the toes of the dog-lovers, the cat-lovers, doctors, lawyers, merchants, chiefs, Mormons, Baptists, Unitarians, second-generation Chinese, Swedes, Italians, Germans, Texans, Brooklynites, Irishmen, people from Oregon or Mexico. The people in this book, this play, this TV serial are not meant to represent any actual painters, cartographers, mechanics anywhere. The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that!

  Ray Bradbury

  Dog, Book, Cat

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• One thing has not changed: to doubt the worth of minority students' achievement when they succeed is really only to present another face of the prejudice that would deny them a chance to even try. It is the same prejudice that insists all those destined for success must be cast from the same mold as those who have succeeded before them, a view that experience has already proven a fallacy.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Views, Achievement, Doubt

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• Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society.

  Theodore Kaczynski

  Ghetto, Average, Black

  Theodore J. Kaczynski (2010). “Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a.”, p.41, Feral House

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• We tell market researchers that we don't mind paying more for green benefits but only a minority of zealots ever really will. A campaign that delivers more widespread green behaviour is going to need to be cleverer that that.

  Chris Powell

  Business, Mind, Needs

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• Promoting active liberty does not mean allowing the majority to run roughshod over minorities. It calls for taking special care that all groups have a chance to fully participate in society and the political process.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Running, Freedom, Mean

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• Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still remain democratic.

  Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

  Freedom, Government, Democracy

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• The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.

  George Orwell

  Country, Freedom, Law

  George Orwell (2016). “Fifty Essays (George Orwell) (Literary Thoughts Edition)”, p.501, epubli

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• Societies without a reservoir of people who don't follow the rules lack an important mechanism for societal evolution. Vibrant societies need a dishonest minority; if society makes its dishonest minority too small, it stifles dissent as well as common crime.

  Bruce Schneier

  People, Important, Needs

  "Status Report: The Dishonest Minority". www.schneier.com. May 9, 2011.

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• Our expanding ethnic diversity of this century, a time when we will all be minorities, offers us an invitation to create a larger memory of who we are as Americans and to re-affirm our founding principle of equality. Let's put aside fears of the disuniting of America and warnings of the clash of civilizations. As Langston Hughes sang, Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.

  Ronald Takaki

  Time, Memories, Equality

  "What does it mean to be Asian American? / The passing of Cal Prof. Ronald Takaki, who helped define the term, leads Jeff Yang to reflect on its relevance in the Age of Obama" by Jeff Yang, www.sfgate.com. June 4, 2009.

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• Women over fifty already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the western world. As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority. In order to like themselves they must reject trivialization by others of who and what they are. A grown woman should not have to masquerade as a girl in order to remain in the land of the living.

  Germaine Greer

  Girl, Order, Land

  "The Change: Women, Aging and the Menopause". Book by Germaine Greer, 1991.

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• Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.

  Albert Camus

  Law, Democracy, Majority

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• This is the age in which thin and theoretic minorities can cover and conquer unconscious and untheoretic majorities.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Progress, Age, Majority

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