Thurgood Marshall Quotes

“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody (a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns) bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

“In recognising the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”

“The legal system can force open doors, and sometimes even knock down walls, but it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me. Afro and White, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, our fates are bound together. We can run from each other, but we cannot escape each other.”

“Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.”

“We deal here with the right of all of our children, whatever their race, to an equal start in life and to an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.”

“A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.”

“This is a great country, but fortunately for you, it is not perfect. There is much to be done to bring about complete equality. Remove hunger. Bring reality closer to theory and democratic principles.”

“America must get to work. In the chilled climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing winds. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”

“At a time in our history when the streets of the Nation's cities inspire fear and despair, rather than pride and hope, it is difficult to maintain objectivity and concern for our fellow citizens. But the measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.”

“Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.”

“What is the quality of your intent?”

“Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.”

“It is important that the strongest pressures against the continuation of segregation, North or South, be continually and constantly manifested.”

“If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.”

“Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.”

“I do not believe that the meaning of the Constitution was forever "fixed" at the Philadelphia Convention. Nor do I find the wisdom, foresight, and sense of justice exhibited by the Framers particularly profound.”

“Today's Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.”

“The effects of the Framers' compromise have remained for generations. They arose from the contradiction between guaranteeing liberty and justice to all, and denying both to Negroes.”

“The experience of Negroes in America has been different in kind, not just in degree, from that of other ethnic groups. It is not merely the history of slavery alone, but also that a whole people were marked as inferior by the law. And that mark has endured.”

“When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his yearning for self-respect does not end.”

“Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.”

“Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.”

“Power, not reason, is the new currency of this Court's decision-making.”

“Deciding not to decide is, of course, among the most important things done by the Supreme Court. It takes a lot of doing, but it can be done.”

“I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston. I saw this man's dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, "You either shape up or ship out."