Quotes about Discrimination

As Kierkegaard insisted from his theistic perspective, so Nietzsche also argues from his naturalistic one: whoever accepts the whole must accept as well the negative, resented, embittering, contrary elements in that whole. If life and character and nature and society truly are wholes, then everything in them is in some way essential to that whole; and we cannot grasp that whole by means of value-judgments if values are INHERENTLY DISCRIMINATORY or divisive functions of our intelligence. Values drive rifts between options, they exist for the sake of the natural powers of the will which (so to speak) needs its food cut up into willable portions or differentiated options.

Offhandedly, when I consider the matter in abstracto, I might wonder how marvelous this world would be if indeed it were even possible to sell philosophy on the market. That would mean that some quorum or critical mass of intelligent minds existed who (a) understood what it really was, (b) comprehended how deformed and crippled and darkened life would be without it being developed to the utmost, and (c) recognized that there was nothing else whatsoever in all the finite world that one should not be willing to pay in order to secure one's basal principles of wisdom first, just because of the richer life that comes in their wake. Just the idea of having enough culturally literate minds to be capable of discriminating between philosophizing and sappy moralizing or vacuous feel-good rhetoric, enough to make the marketing of philosophy feasible: that would be historically and civilizationally prodigious.

When evil men plot, good men must plan. When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love. Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice.

The world is a nest of crows; some caw in praise; some caw in derision. But men should be above the reach of praise and blame.

We have seen a man dragged to death in Texas simply because he was black. A young man murdered in Wyoming simply because he was gay. In the last year alone, we've seen the shootings of African Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish children simply because of who they were. This is not the American way. We must draw the line. Without delay, we must pass the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. And we should reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Love. When we were very young, we loved others beings unconditionally. If the other person did not return our love, we did not react with anger or hatred. Love was never associated with fear. It was spontaneous and arose from a pure heart. Love was not discriminatory. We loved the baby-sitter, the gardener, and our brothers and sisters simply as human beings. Again, somewhere along the way we lost that purity as a result of external influences. Then we began to love with discrimination.

When people are too open-minded it can lead them into being unable to discriminate between sense and nonsense.

There can be no doubt that our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination. Traditionally, such discrimination was rationalized by an attitude of "romantic paternalism" which, in practical effect, put women, not on a pedestal, but in a cage.

Neither praise nor blame is the object of true criticism. Justly to discriminate, firmly to establish, wisely to prescribe and honestly to award - these are the true aims and duties of criticism.

Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. In the middle category, however - that of the unnecessary but undestructive, that of comfort, luxury, exuberance, etc

The real aim of criticism is not the destruction of cherished traditions - although a due regard for the facts does often compel us to revise older opinions - but a fuller appreciation of the beauty and truth of the creative work on which it fixes its regard. The word "criticism" is derived from the Greek word kritikos, which means "the ability to select or discriminate," hence, to decide or judge. The meaning of criticism is thus discriminating judgment.

The Army has carried the American . . . ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability.

[It is] a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.

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

"One does not divine this by impressions or knowledge." What this means is that no matter how much you try to figure or calculate by means of impressions or knowledge, it will not prove the least bit useful. Therefore, separate yourself from the discrimination of figuring things out.

The absurd . . . the fact that with God all things are possible. The absurd is not one of the factors which can be discriminated within the proper compass of the understanding: it is not identical with the improbable, the unexpected, the unforeseen.

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything . . . that smacks of discrimination or slander.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

Ignorance makes for weakness and fear; knowledge gives strength and confidence. Nothing surprises an intellect that knows all things with a sense of discrimination.

There is nothing that does not have something perfect in it; and it is the happiness of good taste to be able to find this perfection in all things. But there is a natural malignity that often discovers a vice in the midst of several virtues, in order to reveal and proclaim the discovery to all the world - a quality that is more the mark of a naturally evil temperament than a superior sense of discrimination. And it is truly an evil lot, to pass one's life always feeding off the imperfections of others.

Part of American greatness, is discrimination. Yes, sir. Inequality, I think, breeds freedom and gives a man opportunity.

As to the position that "the people always mean well," that they always mean to say and do what they believe to be right and just - it may be popular, but it can not be true. The word people applies to all the individual inhabitants of a country. . . . That portion of them who individually mean well never was, nor until the millennium will be, considerable. Pure democracy, like pure rum, easily produces intoxication and with it a thousand pranks and fooleries. I do not expect mankind will, before the millennium, be what they ought to be and therefore, in my opinion, every political theory which does not regard them as being what they are, will prove abortive. Yet I wish to see all unjust and unnecessary discriminations everywhere abolished, and that the time may come when all our inhabitants of every color and discrimination shall be free and equal partakers of our political liberties.

To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference.

Within the stable economy it's necessary to eliminate all forms of sexual discrimination, and to provide women for the first time in our history with economic opportunities equal to those of men.

After the FAA tried to take away his pilot's license. It's really age discrimination. They shudder when you mention that.

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that.

They are a very extensive minority who have suffered discrimination and who have the same right to participation in the promise and fruits of society as every other individual.

If you believe that discrimination exists, it will.

Genocide begins, however improbably, in the conviction that classes of biological distinction indisputably sanction social and political discrimination.

DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another.