“What the left ends up missing is that politics have always been at the heart of American culture; it's been a white identity that's been rendered invisible and neutral because it's seen as objective and universal. As a result, we don't pay attention to how whiteness is one among many racial identities, and that identity politics have been here since the get-go.” HeartHas BeensEndsCultureLeftWhiteResultsPayAttentionMissingIdentityUniversalInvisibleObjectivesPay AttentionAmerican CultureWhitenessIdentity PoliticsRacial Identity Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“When you're going through something, whether it's a wonderful thing like having a child or a sad thing like losing somebody, you often feel like 'Oh my God, I'm so overwhelmed; I'm dealing with this huge thing on my own.' In fact, poetry's a nice reminder that, no, everybody goes through it. These are universal experiences.” FeelsChildrenFactsMy OwnNiceWonderfulHugeLosingUniversalOverwhelmedWonderful ThingsRemindersSad Things Author:Caroline Kennedy
“I think the future is intrinsically linked with our universal human problems. In fact, it's these very problems, and how we deal with them, which will determine our future.” ThinkingHumansFactsProblemDealsUniversalDetermineOur FutureLinkedHuman Problems Author:Alexander Weinstein
“I want to take human rights out of their box. I want to show the relevance of the universal principles of human rights to the basic needs of health, security, education and equality.” WantNeedsHumansShowsPrinciplesRightsSecurityUniversalHuman RightsBoxesRelevanceBasic Needs Author:Mary Robinson
“It's something I want to do going forward - make a movie that is commercial and universal and will play in any movie theater or living room in the States or the UK, but is definitively Canadian. I don't think there's such a thing as prohibitively Canadian.” ThinkingWantStatesPlayRoomsUniversalTheaterLiving RoomMovie Theater Author:Jay Baruchel
“First all men must be able to become men by the improvement of their conditions of existence, so that a universal morality can be created. If I begin by saying to them: "Thou shalt not lie," there is no longer any possibility of political action. What matters first is the liberation of man.” IfsMenFirstsMatterAbleActionPoliticalLyingExistenceConditionsPossibilityMoralityUniversalImprovementLiberationWhat MattersPolitical Action Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
“Like morality, literature needs to be universal. So that the writer must put himself on the side of the majority, of the two billion starving, if he wishes to be able to speak to all and be read by all. Failing that, he is at the service of a privileged class and, like it, an exploiter.” IfsNeedsTwoAbleLiteratureSpeakWishSidesClassFailingMoralityUniversalMajorityBillionsPrivilegedStarving Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
“Why will our elections be universal?Because all citizens, excluding those deprived of vote by court, will have the right to vote and the right to be elected.” CitizensVoteUniversalElectionCourtDeprivedRight To Vote Author:Joseph Stalin
“Universal, equal, direct and secret elections in the U.S.S.R. will be a whip in the hands of the population against poorly functioning organs of government.” HandsGovernmentSecretEqualDirectUniversalElectionPopulationOrgansWhips Author:Joseph Stalin
“People share a universal behavioural trait: if there are profits to be made, the effort to get that money will attract investment. This is true in the private sector, the market sector, as well as the public sector.” PeopleIfsWellsMadeEffortShareUniversalInvestmentProfitTraitsPrivate SectorPublic Sector Author:James M. Buchanan
“Race is a universal flaw in humanity. So yes, I've been in many situations where I've felt like the outsider because of the color of my skin.” HumanityFeltRaceSituationColorSkinsUniversalFlawsOutsiders Author:Jordan Peele
“The music in the movie [Everybody Loves Somebody] is very much hand-picked specifically because it's our history and our traditions. The themes are universal.” HandsTraditionUniversalTheme Author:Karla Souza
“What's great about this hotel [Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City, CA] is that I stayed here for a month when I was competing on the Oprah reality show. So it's like coming home.” ShowsHomeRealityCitiesMonthsUniversalHotelComing HomeCompetingReality Shows Author:Zach Anner
“Everyone who was here [Sheraton Universal Hotel] when I won still works here, so the two biggest moments in my career are intersecting. It's so cool that I can say "hi" to everybody.” StillsI CanTwoMomentsCareersUniversalHotel Author:Zach Anner
“I didn't have a girlfriend until I was 29, and I thought it was because I'm in a wheelchair. And I realized that it's not that, it's because I listened to what the dismissive part of society was telling me and accepted it as truth. There was nothing that was keeping me from dating or falling in love other than the fact that I was scared of being rejected. And everybody has that fear. That's a universal thing.” FactsFallUniversalDatingFalling In LoveScaredAcceptedI RealizedGirlfriendRejectedWheelchairs Author:Zach Anner
“Even in my music, I am always searching for big, universal things - ways that you can sort of reach outside the norm of what you are doing.” WayBigsUniversalReach OutNorm Author:Octavia Spencer
“I don't think that the universal themes of love, compassion, and forgiveness (are present). (You're) searching constantly for the next step, the next level and consciousness in your spirituality, who you are as a human being and what you contribute to society or what God means to you is always a course everyone goes on.” ThinkingHumansMeanSpiritualityCoursesNextHuman BeingsLevelsConsciousnessCompassionStepsGoes OnUniversalWho You AreThemeNext StepsNext LevelUniversal Themes Author:Tim McGraw
“When I was a kid I was a big fan of the Universal Monsters movies of the 1930's and the 1940's. I loved movies like The Wolfman (1941) and Dracula (1931). I really wanted to be in those movies. Eventually I started nagging my parents about it, and it turned from, "I wanna be in a monster movie! I wanna be in a monster movie!" to "I just wanna be in a movie." So I think my parents just thought that if they took me to one audition I'd see how boring it was and I wouldn't wanna do it. But I ended up getting the part, and I got a bunch of roles after that as well.” IfsThinkingWellsBigsKidsWantedParentRolesFansUniversalBoringMonstersBunchAuditions1930sNaggingMonster Movie Author:Robbie Rist
“I believe that we must use language. If it is used in a feminist perspective, with a feminist sensibility, language will find itself changed in a feminist manner. It will nonetheless be the language. You can't not use this universal instrument; you can't create an artificial language, in my opinion. But naturally, each writer must use it in his/her own way.” IfsWayBelieveUseUsedLanguageI BelieveOpinionChangedPerspectiveUniversalInstrumentsFeministArtificialSensibility Author:Simone de Beauvoir
“Can one say that there is a way of crying out, of speaking, which is properly feminine? Personally, I don't think so. In the end, I find this is another way of putting women in a kind of singularity, a ghetto, which is not what I want. I want them to be singular and universal at the same time.” ThinkingWayWantKindEndsCryUniversalFeminineAnother WayGhettoSingularity Author:Simone de Beauvoir
“Every government has signed up to a voluntary legal commitment under at least one of the international covenants and conventions based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But who is holding them to account? Our mission is to make it known that these conventions are good tools for civil society to hold their local authority, their government and businesses accountable.” HumansGovernmentKnownRightsAuthorityCommitmentToolsUniversalAccountsInternationalHuman RightsMissionsLocalsConventionsDeclarationCovenantCivil SocietyDeclaration Of Human RightsGovernment And Business Author:Mary Robinson
“Post-genocide Rwanda has managed to implement a good universal health insurance scheme that covers a large proportion of the population. This came about because of the severity of the country's problems and the resulting high proportion of women in the parliament and among professional caregivers, which had a positive effect on policy.” CountryProblemEffectsPolicyUniversalPopulationPostsProportionGenocideSchemesParliamentSeverityRwandaCaregivers Author:Mary Robinson
“Man is a thinking being. The way he thinks is related to society, politics, economics, and history and is also related to very general and universal categories and formal structures. But thought is something other than societal relations.” ThinkingMenWayEconomicsUniversalRelationStructureRelatedCategoriesFormal Author:Michel Foucault
“The way people really think is not adequately analyzed by the universal categories of logic. Between social history and formal analyses of thought there is a path, a lane - maybe very narrow - which is the path of the historian of thought.” PeopleThinkingWaySocialPathLogicUniversalAnalysisCategoriesHistorianFormalLanesSocial History Author:Michel Foucault
“It is one of my targets to show people that a lot of things that are part of their landscape - that people are universal - are the result of some very precise historical changes. All my analyses are against the idea of universal necessities in human existence. They show the arbitrariness of institutions and show which space of freedom we can still enjoy and how many changes can still be made.” PeopleHumansMadeStillsIdeasShowsEnjoySpaceResultsExistenceUniversalInstitutionsHistoricalLandscapeAnalysisTargetPreciseHuman ExistenceHistorical Change Author:Michel Foucault
“South Korea from a country that had relatively little primary education became close to universal literacy in the course of 25, 30 years, in a way trying to replicate what Japan had done earlier. They were learning to some extent from the Japanese experience too. So I think, in a sense, the East Asians were following a path, which all other countries including South Asia could follow but chose not too.” ThinkingWayTryingYearsLittlesCountryDoneCoursesPathUniversalSouthIncludingFollowingEastPrimariesJapanOther CountriesAsiaLiteracyKoreaReplicateSouth KoreaSouth AsiaPrimary Education Author:Amartya Sen
“I think this generation can play a very important role. If we act now, this could be the first generation to witness universal education.” IfsThinkingFirstsImportantPlayRolesGenerationsUniversalWitnessThis GenerationUniversal Education Author:Shakira
“At the current pace of change, we won't have universal access to education in 100 years, let alone five, and that is unacceptable.” YearsFiveUniversalCurrentsAccessPaceAccess To EducationPace Of Change Author:Shakira
“We are masters, first, of our attitudes. Our attitudes shape our future. This is a universal law.” FirstsLawAttitudeMastersShapesUniversalOur FutureUniversal Laws Author:W. Clement Stone
“I think the most important work that is going on has to do with the search for very general and abstract features of what is sometimes called universal grammar: general properties of language that reflect a kind of biological necessity rather than logical necessity; that is, properties of language that are not logically necessary for such a system but which are essential invariant properties of human language and are known without learning. We know these properties but we don't learn them. We simply use our knowledge of these properties as the basis for learning.” ThinkingKnowsHumansKindImportantSometimesUseLanguageKnownEssentialsUniversalBasesPropertyFeaturesAbstractLogicalGrammarHuman LanguageImportant Work Author:Noam Chomsky
“In fact, by universal grammar I mean just that system of principles and structures that are the prerequisites for acquisition of language, and to which every language necessarily conforms.” MeanFactsLanguagePrinciplesUniversalStructureConformGrammarAcquisitionPrerequisites Author:Noam Chomsky
“We naturally assume that our mental structures are universal. But I suppose an outside biologist looking at us would see something very different. He would see that, like other organisms, we have a narrow sphere within which we are very good, but that sphere is very limited. And that, in fact, the very achievements we can have within that sphere are related to lack of achievements in other spheres.” DifferentFactsAchievementUniversalStructureAssumingVery GoodRelatedSpheresOrganismsBiologist Author:Noam Chomsky
“The lessons of nonviolence are universal. Not just for America.” AmericaLessonsUniversalNonviolence Author:John Lewis
“The idea of universal human rights may not seem as weird to some people as the idea of a personal God, but it is still a metaphysical idea that liberalism, at least as we know it, couldn't really survive without.” PeopleKnowsHumansMayStillsIdeasSeemsRightsUniversalHuman RightsLiberalismMetaphysical Author:Ross Douthat
“There was a deliberate decision after the failure of the League of Nations to make the next attempt to establish a global political actor sensitive to geopolitical realities. The underlying idea was to provide major states, defined in 1945 by reference to the winners in the Second World War (now an anachronism), with assurance that they could take part in the UN without jeopardising their national interests. In this regard, the UN has succeeded, as none of the big countries has withdrawn, and the Organisation has managed to achieve virtually universal membership of all sovereign states.” WorldIdeasWarCountryStatesBigsRealityPoliticalNextActorsNationsInterestDecisionAchieveMajorsUniversalRegardDefinedWinnerLeagueSensitiveWar Of The WorldsSovereignAssuranceDeliberateOrganisationSecond World WarMembershipNational InterestsGeopoliticalAnachronismLeague Of Nations Author:Richard A. Falk
“The UDHR has become an iconic document over the course of more than six decades, the starting point for discussions of whether or not the rights as set forth are truly universal or slanted to reflect the hegemony of Western values, especially those associated with liberal individualism.” ValuesCoursesRightsSixUniversalWesternStartingDecadesDiscussionIndividualismDocumentsStarting PointIconicHegemonyWestern Values Author:Richard A. Falk
“On the one side, I welcome prosecutions of individuals such as Pinochet, and would welcome the indictment, prosecution, and punishment of Kissinger. On the other side is the geopolitical reality that only those in the global South are likely to experience the impact of Universal Jurisdiction.” RealityIndividualSidesUniversalImpactSouthPunishmentWelcomeProsecutionJurisdictionIndictmentGeopoliticalKissingerPinochet Author:Richard A. Falk
“This issue of expanding the reach of international criminal law by reliance on the use of Universal Jurisdiction by domestic courts needs to be balanced against the injustice of according impunity to those with strong geopolitical backing. It is notable that several western European countries backtracked on UJ after threats of retaliatory moves by the United States and Israel. There is no doubt that the domain of UJ is a geopolitical battleground.” NeedsCountryStatesUseMovingLawStrongUnitedUnited StatesIssuesDoubtUniversalCourtThreatWesternInjusticeInternationalIsraelCriminalsNo DoubtBalancedExpandingDomainRelianceNotableImpunityEuropean CountriesJurisdictionCriminal LawBattlegroundGeopolitical Author:Richard A. Falk
“The fact that Universal Jurisdiction exists in relation to serious international crimes does convey two important aspects of the global reality: first, that such individuals would be held accountable if international law was applied without regard to geopolitics, and second, that there is enough ambiguity about the reach of UJ that it inhibits such individuals and conveys an impression of de facto criminality.” IfsFirstsDoeTwoImportantEnoughFactsRealityWould BeLawIndividualCrimeSeriousAspectUniversalRelationRegardInternationalImpressionAmbiguityGeopoliticsInternational LawCriminalityJurisdiction Author:Richard A. Falk
“The weaknesses and biases of the international mechanisms of accountability make it seem desirable to extend the domain of accountability by empowering domestic courts to act as agents of the world legal system. Even if there is no consistent application of Universal Jurisdiction, it still leads those who might be prosecuted to alter their travel plans to avoid even the complication of waiting for a complaint to be dismissed.” IfsWorldStillsSeemsMightWaitingPlansWeaknessUniversalCourtInternationalAgentsEmpoweringConsistentAccountabilityApplicationMechanismComplaintsDesirableDomainComplicationLegal SystemJurisdiction Author:Richard A. Falk
“On the cautionary side, Universal Jurisdiction could be used to achieve some kind of ideologically motivated criminalisation of 'the other' that would discredit and derail a constructive effort to develop a credible meta-law that governs the behaviour of leaders of sovereign states.” KindStatesLawUsedSidesEffortLeaderAchieveUniversalMotivatedBehaviourSovereignConstructiveCredibleDiscreditJurisdiction Author:Richard A. Falk
“It is on balance desirable to encourage Universal Jurisdiction, and to create pressure from below to make application of such jurisdiction as consistent as possible. I think this will act as a deterrent in some situations, although this impact will never be acknowledged by those affected as it would only embolden civil society to intensify its pressures.” ThinkingSituationBalanceUniversalPressureImpactConsistentAffectedApplicationDesirableCivil SocietyJurisdictionDeterrent Author:Richard A. Falk
“It's been a long time since universal suffrage, and I'm sick of the old white men running the show.” MenLongShowsRunningWhiteLong TimeSickUniversalWhite ManSuffrageUniversal Suffrage Author:Cate Blanchett
“As Muslims, we are all equals, we abide by the laws and we understand that we have to be active citizens wherever we are. Our goals are first to live by our principles, to remind people of these values, to reconcile our respective societies with these shared universal values and to try our best to push for a spiritual agenda with more ethics in society, in politics, in economics, and in culture.” PeopleTryingFirstsSpiritualLawValuesCultureGoalPrinciplesCitizensEthicsEconomicsUniversalActiveAgendasLive ByReconcile Author:Tariq Ramadan
“The singularity of Islam is its universality. As American citizens and as Muslims, you need to show there is something specific, namely our moral singularity. We believe there is one God and this one God is pushing us to reach universal values by liberating ourselves from our ego and by serving humanity. We must be involved in this by all means necessary, in a nonviolent way, through the legal, media, economic and cultural systems. We cannot achieve this if there is no courage, if we are not ready to sacrifice.” IfsWayNeedsBelieveMeanShowsValuesHumanityMoralSacrificeEconomicAchieveMediaReadyCitizensInvolvedEgoUniversalIslamPushingServingLiberatingNot ReadyAmerican CitizensSingularityUniversality Author:Tariq Ramadan
“I don't see myself as a deep philosopher. The things I write about tend to be what we all have to face, or consider, or experience, that I talk about with my friends and brothers. It's universal stuff, told in my own voice, my own details and truth, which is all I have to offer.” WritingFacesStuffVoiceMy OwnBrotherOffersMy FriendsUniversalPhilosopherDetails Author:Anne Lamott
“The stuff I write about is pretty universal, the things my closest friends and I talk about - our anxiety about being here on this scary planet, during these scary times, as vulnerable as kittens, having lost so many people I couldn't live without.” PeopleWritingLostStuffPlanetsAnxietyUniversalScaryVulnerableClosestKittenClosest Friends Author:Anne Lamott
“For me people are people, without meaning to sound corny, it's a plain natural fact, music is a universal language and I've always known that and observed that and treated music with great respect accordingly.” PeopleFactsLanguageSoundNaturalKnownMusic IsUniversalTreatedCornyGreat RespectUniversal Language Author:John Lydon
“Hard power makes sense under some circumstances. But there's not a universal solution to global problems. A major country like the United States has to have a broadly-conceived program for effective international action, influence and cooperation with others.” CountryHardStatesProblemActionUnitedUnited StatesInfluenceCircumstancesMajorsSolutionsProgramUniversalInternationalMake SenseCooperation Author:Zbigniew Brzezinski
“Russia is a place of great culture. If you've read Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov...the culture of the great Russian literature is amazing. The human narrative you get out of "War and Peace" is universal.” IfsHumansWarCultureLiteratureUniversalRussiaNarrativeRussian LiteratureChekhovDostoyevskyPushkin Author:Andre Leon Talley