No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the dangers faced by those who try to assist the oppressed.
Clarence Darrow's quote highlights the harsh consequences often imposed on individuals who stand up to help those in need, particularly the oppressed. It suggests that advocating for the downtrodden can lead to serious repercussions, reflecting the societal resistance to change and the protection of established power structures. By acknowledging this truth, Darrow calls attention to the courageous yet often perilous position of those who fight for justice and equality.
In practice
During a speech on social justice, one might quote this to underline the risks activists face.
With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.
Do I need to argue to Your Honor that cruelty only breeds cruelty? That hatred only causes hatred; that if there is any way to soften this human heart which is hard enough at its best, if there is any way to kill evil and hatred and all that goes with it, it is not through evil and hatred and cruelty; it is through charity, and love, and understanding?
Chase after the truth like all hell.
Liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man. She will have nothing from him who will not give her all. She knows that his pretended love serves but to betray. But when once the fierce heat of her quenchless, lustrous eyes have burned into the victim's heart, he will know no other smile but hers.
The trouble with law is lawyers.
The time will come when all people will view with horror light way in which society and its courts of law now take human life; and when that time comes, the way will be clear to device some better method of dealing with poverty and ignorance and their frequent byproducts, which we call crime.
You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
It's not the violence of the few that scares me, it's the silence of the many
Like: 'Don't walk out there with one hand in your pocket unless there's somethin' in there you're going to bring out.' You gotta commit. You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time.
Ah! never shall the land forget How gushed the life-blood of her brave -
For the pride of trace and trail was his, and sick unto death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work.
Everything you want is on the other side of fear.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.