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Cornel West Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Accountability Addiction Arrogance Children Church Commitment Community Compassion Country Culture Democracy Dialogue Evidence Evil Fighting Genius Giving Greatness Greed Hatred Healing Heart Hip Hop House Humanity Inequality Inspirational Integrity Jazz Jesus Joy Justice Language Legacy Loneliness Luther Lying Morning Obsession Optimism Overcoming Pain Passion Philosophy Pleasure Quality Racism Rage Reading Sacrifice Sadness School Serving Others Silence Slavery Soul Struggle Suffering Values Wall War Wealth White Supremacy Wrestling

To be human, at the most profound level, is to encounter honestly the inescapable circumstances that constrain us, yet muster the courage to struggle compassionately for our own unique individualities and for more

To be human, at the most profound level, is to encounter honestly the inescapable circumstances that constrain us, yet muster the courage to struggle compassionately for our own unique individualities and for more democratic and free societies.

Struggle, Unique, Profound

We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence.

Inspirational, Relationship, Loyalty

Cornel West (2009). “Brother West”, p.160, Hay House, Inc

The love of wisdom is a way of life; that is to say, it's a set of practices that have to do with mustering the courage to think critically about ourselves, society, and the world; mustering the courage to empathize; the courage, I would say, to love; the courage to have compassion with others, especially the widow and the orphan, the fatherless and the motherless, poor and working peoples, gays and lesbians, and so forth - and the courage to hope.

Gay, Thinking, Compassion

Source: blogs.ssrc.org

Be willing to learn, because none of us know the truth

Willing To Learn, Willing, Knows

When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with their abuse. They can't get away with subjection. They can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation. They can't get away with domination. It takes courage for folk to stand up.

People, Abuse, Ordinary

FaceBook post by Dr. Cornel West from Jan 04, 2017

The only countervailing force against organized money at the top, is organized people at the bottom.

People, Force, Bottom

I remind young people everywhere I go, one of the worst things the older generation did was to tell them for twenty-five years "Be successful, be successful, be successful" as opposed to "Be great, be great, be great". There's a qualitative difference.

Successful, Years, Differences

"Democracy Matters". Speech in San Francisco, October 01, 2004.

The powerful have no monopoly on greed, hatred, fear, or ignorance.

Powerful, Ignorance, Hatred

Source: genius.com

White supremacist ideology is based first and foremost on the degradation of black bodies in order to control them. One of the best ways to instill fear in people is to terrorize them. Yet this fear is best sustained by convincing them that their bodies are ugly, their intellect is inherently underdeveloped, their culture is less civilized, and their future warrants less concern than that of other peoples.

Order, White, People

Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.85, Beacon Press

Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.

Clever, Yield, Self

Twitter post from Jan 24, 2013

Interrogate yours hidden assumptions

Assumption

The blues aren’t pessimistic. We’re prisoners of hope but we tell the truth and the truth is dark.

Dark, Pessimistic, Telling The Truth

King's response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.

Kings, Thinking, People

"Dr. King Weeps From His Grave". www.nytimes.com. August 25, 2011.

Justice is what love looks like in public.

Justice, Looks, Justice And Love

Twitter post from Feb 15, 2017

The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak, it means then that if you have a prophetic sensibility, you are committed to loving others and if you love others, you hate injustice.

Hate, Mean, Suffering

Source: genius.com

It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.

Fighting, Dark, Soul

"Cornel West: Truth". Interview with Astra Taylor, killingthebuddha.com. November 15, 2009.

To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away.

Christian, Land, Names

Cornel West (2005). “Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism”, p.107, Penguin

A rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it.

Rich Life, Trying, World

We have a market-driven society so obsessed with buying and selling and obsessed with power and pleasure and property.

Buying, Pleasure, Selling

"Cornel West Reconsiders President Obama". "Talk of the Nation" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. August 2, 2010.

One of the things I love most about Martin Luther King is that he was willing to sacrifice his popularity in favor of his integrity. He was an honest man, and he would tell the truth.

Kings, Integrity, Sacrifice

Source: www.chicagotribune.com

Those who have never despaired have neither lived nor loved. Hope is inseparable from despair. Those of us who truly hope make despair a constant companion whom we out-wrestle every day owing to our commitment to justice, love, and hope.

Commitment, Justice, Despair

FaceBook post by Dr. Cornel West from Feb 29, 2012

You can't move forward until you look back.

Moving, Moving Forward, Looks

To be an intellectual really means to speak a truth that allows suffering to speak.

Mean, Intellectual, Suffering

Cornel West (1999). “The Cornel West Reader”, p.551, Basic Books

It's a spiritual malnutrition tied to a moral constipation, where people have a sense of what's right and what's good. It's just stuck, and they can't get it out because there's too much greed. There's too much obsession with reputation and addiction to narrow conceptions of success.

Spiritual, Addiction, People

"Cornel West Reconsiders President Obama". "Talk of the Nation" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. August 2, 2010.

Market moralities and mentalities-- fueled by economic imperatives to make a profit at nearly any cost-- yield unprecedented levels of loneliness, isolation, and sadness. And our public life lies in shambles, shot through with icy cynicism and paralyzing pessimism. To put it bluntly, beneath the record-breaking stock markets on Wall Street and bipartisan budget-balancing deals in the White House lurk ominous clouds of despair across this nation.

Wall, Loneliness, Lying

Cornel West (1998). “Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America”, G K Hall & Company

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