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Prejudice Quotes

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Prejudice Quotes

“I believe with all my heart that civilization has produced nothing finer than a man or woman who thinks and practices true tolerance. Some one has said that most of us don't think, we just occasionally rearrange our prejudices. And I suspect that even today, with all the progress we have made in liberal thought, the quality of true tolerance is as rare as the quality of mercy. That men of all creeds have fundamental common objectives is a fact one must learn by the process of education. How to work jointly toward these objectives must be learned by experience.”

“I am amused when goody-goodies proclaim, from the safety of their armchairs, that children are naturally prejudice-free, that they only learn to "hate" from listening to bigoted adults. Nonsense. Tolerance is a learned trait, like riding a bike or playing the piano. Those of us who actually live among children, who see them in their natural environment, know the truth: Left to their own devices, children will gang up on and abuse anyone who is even slightly different from the norm.”

“... one of the blind spots of most Negroes is their failure to realize that small overtures from whites have a large significance... I now realize that this feeling inevitably takes possession of one in the bitter struggle for equality. Indeed, I share it. Yet I wonder how we can expect total acceptance to step full grown from the womb of prejudice, with no embryo or infancy or childhood stages.”

“When the dust settles and the pages of history are written, it will not be the angry defenders of intolerance who have made the difference. The reward will go to those who dared to step outside the safety of their privacy in order to expose and rout the prevailing prejudices.”

“Is it not possible to look beyond the canes, the wheelchairs, the braces, and the crutches into the hearts of the people who have need of these aids? They are human beings and want only to be treated as ordinary people. They may appear different, move awkwardly, and speak haltingly, but they have the same feelings. ... They want to be loved for what they are inside, without any prejudice for their impairment. Can there not be more tolerance for differences-differences in capacity, differences in body and in mind?”

“To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart, from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance instead of prejudice, distrust and hatred. We will have to teach our children-as well as ourselves-to love the diversity of humanity....We can do it. Yes, you and I and all of us together. Now is the time. Now is the only possible time. Let the Great Healing begin.”

“You spent centuries manufacturing lies as law, prejudice as policy, cleansing as civilizing, now watch one Naskar and his ablaze soldiers establish the first proper Human Civilization, with no one dominant culture, no one supreme religion, no majority, no minority, no privileged, no marginalized - where all streams inhabit the human veins, not as oil and water, but as one lifeblood, enhancing consciousness into completeness.”

“Prototype Human (Sonnet 2249) The pen is my paradise, the pen is my grave. Everybody has all the answers, I seem to have only questions. Good thing, I don't know how to write, methods are obstacle to my madness. I'm vast enough to contain the world, asylum pills don't work on pilgrim brains. My pen never runs out of ink, because the pen is an extension of my anatomy. Madness is the first sign of sanity, oneness is the seed of infinity. Stereotypes are sanity of the jungle, prejudice is sacred in the animal kingdom. Flags are the poison, cosmos is (my) kin - I am no stereotype, I am the Prototype Human.”

“I Too Am A Racist (Sonnet) I too am a racist, except my racism is rooted in evolution, not ignorance and fear - to me, human race is the mightiest animal, which is why, our responsibility is far greater. I too am a bigot, but my bigotry is tolerance, I don't accept anyone as human who's intolerant. I too am a fundamentalist, but my faith is choice, every human is free to choose what's best for them. I too am a traditionalist, except I walk the tradition of acceptance, not a secondhand host to dividing lineage. I too am an extremist, except my extreme is annihilation, my culture don't exist, nor religion, or native language. I am native of the earth, yet I'm immigrant to humankind, for I come from a valley, alien to the states of the world. I am not interested in building bridges, I am the bulldozer, out to demolish convention that makes divisions possible.”