Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.
Thurgood MarshallRead
I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.
Interpretation
Thurgood Marshall emphasizes the importance of patience and gradual change over time.
In this quote, Thurgood Marshall reflects on the concept of gradualism, suggesting that meaningful progress in life takes time and cannot be rushed. He implies that after a lifetime of experiences and changes over nearly a century, one should appreciate the slow, steady advancements rather than expect immediate outcomes.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of persistence in social justice movements.
Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.
The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.
I cannot accept this invitation [to celebrate the bicentenial of the Constitution], for I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever 'fixed' at the Philadelphia Convention... To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start. [Progressive]
When in Gregg v. Georgia the Supreme Court gave its seal of approval to capital punishment, this endorsement was premised on the promise that capital punishment would be administered with fairness and justice. Instead, the promise has become a cruel and empty mockery. If not remedied, the scandalous state of our present system of capital punishment will cast a pall of shame over our society for years to come. We cannot let it continue.
If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
Solutions nearly always come from the direction you least expect, which means there's no point trying to look in that direction because it won't be coming from there.
A wise man watches his faults more closely than his virtues; fools reverse the order.
The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
Pride was the belt you used to hold your pants up when you had no pants.
All things are ready, if our mind be so.
For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one's strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases and preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues. This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended.
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