Society and the World

Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world and ignorance of mankind.

Real freedom is freedom from fear, and unless you can live free from fear you cannot live a dignified human life.

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

In all my work what I try to say is that as human beings we are more alike than we are unalike.

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.

As those who believe in the visibility of ghosts can easily see them, so it is always easy to see repulsive qualities in those we despise and hate.

The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed-upon myths of its conquerors.

The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and the agreed-upon myths of its conquerors.

The majority has the might—more’s the pity—but it hasn’t the right. . . . The minority is always right.

The majority has the might—more’s the pity—but it hasn’t the right. . . . The minority is always right.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.

If you hate your enemies, you will contract such a vicious habit of mind, as by degrees will break out upon those who are your friends, or those who are indifferent to you.

Hatred is the vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their littlenesses, and make it the pretext of base tyrannies.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side.

A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side.

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.

However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.

Shall we judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.

As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.