“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.” ——Haile Selassie
“The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” ——Albert Einstein
“If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.” ——Mel Thompson
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” ——Alexander Hamilton
“I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ——Elie Wiesel
“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade-unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time no one was left to speak up.” ——Rev. Martin Niemoller
“It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.” ——A.A. Hodge
“Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.” ——Henry Miller
“If you assume that there’s no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there’s a chance for you to contribute to making a better world. That’s your choice.” ——Noam Chomsky
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ——Margaret Mead
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” ——Robert F. Kennedy
“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.” ——Edmund Burke
“To those who have called me a coward I say that they are wrong, and that without knowing it, they are also right. They are wrong when they think that I left the war for fear of being killed. I admit that fear was there, but there was also the fear of killing innocent people, the fear of putting myself in a position where to survive means to kill, there was the fear of losing my soul in the process of saving my body, the fear of losing myself to my daughter, to the people who love me, to the man I used to be, the man I wanted to be. I was afraid of waking up one morning to realize my humanity had abandoned me.” ——Sgt. Camilo Mejia
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” ——Elie Wiesel
“Never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” ——Sir Winston Churchill
“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” ——Plato
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” ——Albert Einstein
“The ability and inclination to use physical strength is no indication of bravery or tenacity to life. The greatest cowards are often the greatest bullies. Nothing is cheaper and more common than physical bravery.” ——Clarence Darrow
“To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.” ——Oscar Wilde
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” ——Mark Twain
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.” ——Theodore Roosevelt
“It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.” ——Albert Einstein
“Action is the antidote to despair.” ——Joan Baez
“To fight evil one must also recognize one’s own responsibility. The values for which we stand must be expressed in the way we think of, and how we deal with, our fellow humans.” ——HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” ——Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.” ——Michel de Montaigne
“The great only appear great because we are on our knees. Let us rise.” ——James Larkin
“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” ——Rosa Parks
“Those liberals who continue to inhale the intoxicant of bipartisanship had best sober up because Guantanamo beckons.” ——Carolyn Kay
“When faced with a choice between confronting an unpleasant reality and defending a set of comforting and socially accepted beliefs, most people choose the later course.” ——W. Lance Bennett
“My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?” ——Paul Robeson
“My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.” ——Kurt Cobain
“There’s always time to own up to things you’re ashamed of, to change them. There’s always time to start. And I think the starting is the most important thing. It takes courage. It takes a lot more courage than any vain feat of arms, let me tell you. It takes a lifetime to become a fool, and only a moment to begin to become wise.” ——Peter Danielson
“There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to die — that takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men, and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he, too, is brave and afraid like all the rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer. Or sometimes ten minutes, or twenty minutes.” ——Alistair MacLean
“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.” ——C.S. Lewis
“A good argument diluted to avoid criticism is not nearly as good as the undiluted argument, because we best arrive at truth through a process of honest and vigorous debate. Arguments should not sneak around in disguise, as if dissent were somehow sinister. One should not be cowed by criticism.” ——Author Unknown
“In my humble opinion, those who come to engage in debates of consequence, and who challenge accepted wisdom, should expect to be treated badly. Nonetheless, they must stand undaunted. That is required. And that should be expected. For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom.” ——Justice Clarence Thomas
“One man with courage is a majority.” ——Thomas Jefferson