Quotes by Cornel West

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”

“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and perni...”

“I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration- joy and pain sit side by side. The blues started off in some field, some plan...”

“liberty, which means resisting all forms of cultural authoritarianism, be it from the right wing church, black ideologues, black nationalists, or mainstream white media. We have to accent liberty a...”

“To be a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ - is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom.”

“To be a jazz freedom fighter is to attempt to galvanize and energize world-weary people into forms of organization with accountable leadership that promote critical exchange and broad reflection. T...”

“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...”

“It is a beautiful thing to be on fire for justice there is no greater joy than inspiring and empowering othersespecially the least of these, the precious and priceless wretched of the earth!”

“There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in Americas jails who were so taken by Malcolm [Xs} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They kne...”

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

“..begin by talking about the kind of existentialist chaos that exists in our own lives and our inability to overcome the sense of alienation and frustration we experience when we try to create bond...”

“You can't really move forward until you look back.[From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]”

“Since the end of the postwar economic boom, certain strategies have been intensified to stimulate consumption, especially strategies aimed at American youth that project sexual activity as instant ...”

“Only a visionary leadership that can motivate "the better angels of our nature," as Lincoln said, and activate possibilities for a freer, more efficient, and stable America -- only that leadership ...”

“And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen so...”

“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. --Aristotle”

“The Poverty Tour provided the opportunity to meet many people who had been living paycheck to paycheck even before the economic downturn. To so quickly slide from the great middle into the underwor...”

“And when you love people, you hate the fact that theyre being treated unfairly. You tell the truth. You sacrifice your popularity for integrity. There is a willingness to give your life back to the...”

“As long as you're scared you're on the plantation.”

“Of course, the aim of a constitutional democracy is to safeguard the rights of the minority and avoid the tyranny of the majority. (p. 102)”