“Equality and progress literally can t happen on systemic levels if we say all the right things but don t mean them, wouldn t you say?”
“The happenstance of someone s birth should not determine whether or not they are impoverished. It is up to those of us with power in whatever form to work to make the lives of everyone better, starting with those less fortunate than us”
“You must work to distribute the fundamental resources of life equally, while working on the foundation of a society that doesn t allow disparities in distribution of resources in the first place.”
“No part of this comm gets to decide that any part of this comm is expendable. No voting on who gets to be people. [...] This is a community. You will be unified. You will fight for each other.”
“Advancement that only serves the privileged and excludes the rest of the world is not advancement, but an abuse of power.”
“In a civilized society, the government s foremost duty is to ensure equal distribution of essentials of life, and the citizens foremost duty is to share the resources available to them with those without.”
“we are not here to tolerate our difference, we are here to accept them. We are not here to celebrate our sameness, we are here to salute our distinctions. We are not born into equal circumstances but to equal abilities, but we should have equal opportunities. As individuals we unite in our values.”
“We had defied our caste assignments: He was not a warrior or ruler. He was a geologist. I was not a domestic. I was an author. He had defied his caste from on high and I, from below, and we had met at this moment in London at our own Maginot Line of equality, standing on different sides of the same quest to understand the forces that had sought to define us but had failed.”
“...up here on the Ice each of us is singular, isolate, I as cut off from those like me, from my society and its rules, as he from his. [...] We are equals at last, equal, alien, alone.”
“We lords, at our oars, then? We sweating, pissing, swearing, grunting gentlemen? I think not, Palli. On the galleys we were not lords or men. We were men or animals, and which proved which had no relation I ever saw to birth or blood. The greatest soul I ever met there had been a tanner, and I would kiss his feet right now with joy to learn he yet lived. We slaves, we lords, we fools, we men and women, we mortals, we toys of the gods—all the same thing, Palli. They are all the same to me now.”
“We see today, as if scales were falling from our eyes, that even nature, that great conferrer of talent and ally of bourgeois ascent, was itself conceived of rather like a court in which there were still protégés and favorites. Thus, when exposed to the light, nature is as unjust and capricious as the absolute ruler, nay, even more: it is the absolutism of chance in its purest form. With this insight, talent and genius become offensive to all those who, as Niklas Luhmann so finely (and maliciously) put it once, must also live off their looks. First there is discontent, then comes hatred, and hatred, as always, is followed by a codicil of good reasons.”
“If [captains of industry] really sit down and and think, you will know why you must have time and feeling for the people who are not so successful. Then, they will leave you in charge to make the decisions to make their lives better. But if they think you are making decisions to make your life better at their expense, then there will be trouble. If you act like a big shot, not only will you collapse, but you will also bring the Government down. Therefore, when [any captain of industry] acts like a big shot, my job is to take the pin and poke the balloon and break it.”
“There s something about a white man who seriously opens up to black people. White people who become family to black people. There s another dimension of militance that emerges from them. They grip their anger with the system in ways black people are not allowed, in efforts to right the wrongs.”
“I brought Grand Rapids with me to Newaygo. I brought difference. I was used to a fluid concept of harmony. I was used to diversity. Homogenous harmony has walls. As a fourteen-year-old boy in Newaygo, I felt those walls.”
“In a culture so divided, we can find comfort knowing that inside we re all created of the exact same energy. Spirituality is the great equalizer--anyone can tap into it anytime and anywhere.”
“I sought a world where peasants and kings were as brothers. But what new world was ever made without the sword?”
“There was something peculiar I noticed when about thinking about freedom. Everyone wants it but less are willing to extend the same freedoms to everyone. Seems inconsistent to me.”