Quotes About Empowerment

Again the crucial question: Is there any help to be found for the disinherited in the religion of Jesus?

He recognized with authentic realism that anyone who permits another to determine the quality of his inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to his destiny. If a man knows precisely what he can do to you or what epithet he can hurl against you in order to make you lose your temper, your equilibrium, then he can always keep you under subjection. It is a man's reaction to things that determines their ability to exercise power over him.

THE significance of the religion of Jesus to people who stand with their backs against the wall has always seemed to me to be crucial.

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Jesus and the Disinherited represents nothing less than those conversations Black parents must have with their children in a world that denies the created sacredness of their Black humanity.

Even as Thurman recognizes that Christianity has been used throughout history as "an instrument of oppression," he makes clear "that Christianity as it was born in the mind of [Jesus] appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed.

This book provides a message to Black children on how to thrive and flourish in a world that attempts to destroy their humanity from the "inside" out.

The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them?

MacHaffie, Barbara J. Her Story: Women in Christian Tradition. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003. MacHaffie's is a well-respected book focusing on the too-often neglected contributions of women in the church generally, including theology.

We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface.

What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but "who is sitting in" -- and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.

Hair style is the final tip-off whether or not a woman really knows herself.

Liberalism, above all, means emancipation - emancipation from one's fears, his inadequacies, from prejudice, from discrimination, from poverty.

People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.

Indeed, Nietzsche believed that the only possibility for existence was for each of us to become gods ourselves.

They luxuriated in the feeling of deep and all pervading satisfaction, a feeling of knowing absolutely that all was well with the world...Not only were all things possible, but all things were theirs.

They luxuriated in the feeling of deep and all pervading satisfaction, a feeling of knowing absolutely that all was well with the world and them and that the world was not only their oyster it was also their linguine with clam sauce. Not only were all things possible, but all things were theirs.

"Every Man a King." Every man to eat when there is something to eat; all to wear something when there is something to wear. That makes us all a sovereign.

I'm for the poor man — all poor men, black and white, they all gotta have a chance. They gotta have a home, a job, and a decent education for their children. 'Every man a king' — that's my slogan.

I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

Huey coined the term "revolutionary suicide" to describe this phenomenon.

He felt that people should not be like cars or houses. No man should own a wife, nor should a wife own a husband, because ownership is predicated upon control, fences, barriers, constraints, and psychological tyranny. Nonpossessive love is based upon shared experiences and friendship; it is the kind of love we have for our bodies, for our thumb or foot. We love ourselves, our bodies, but we do not want to enslave any part of ourselves.