Thurgood Marshall Quotes

Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.

A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.

We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories... We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust... We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

Do what you think is right and let the law catch up.

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much.

What is the quality of your intent? Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.

A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.

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.

Truth is more than a mental exercise.

Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today.

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.

Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.

We must dissent from the fear.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.

Our Constitution is the envy of the world, as it should be for it is the grand design of the finest nation on earth.

What is the quality of your intent?