Quotes about Minorities

Truth always originates in a minority of one, and every custom begins as a broken precedent.

The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.

To suppress minority thinking and minority expression would tend to freeze society and prevent progress. Now more than ever we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.

Civilization is a slow process of adopting the ideas of minorities.

Every new opinion at its starting is precisely a minority of one.

All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.

The truth, the hope of any time, must always be sought in minorities.

The test of tolerance comes when we are in a majority; the test of courage comes when we are in a minority.

If a man is in a minority of one, we lock him up.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

We as a people seem to be losing all sense of respect for ourselves and our fellow men, with the result that in a thoroughly intolerant attitude we hesitate not a minute to secure an organized minority, or even a majority, to attempt by resolution or law to impose our will on a large body of people in matters where no moral wrong is involved and where liberty is curtailed.

When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.

Every effort for progress, for enlightenment, for science, for religious, political, and economic liberty, emanates from the minority, and not from the mass.

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.

Despite one or two minority appeals our society is not outraged at man's unremitting use of the animal world. Ecologists and environmentalists may talk of "ecological consciousness" or "environmental responsibility" but seldom, if ever, is this responsibility articulated towards other non-human species in particular.

Here's Abraham Lincoln's incredible journey to become the sixteenth president of the United States of America! 1809 - Born February 12 in a log cabin in the backwoods of Hardin County (now Larue County), Kentucky 1816 - He worked to support his family after they were forced out of their home. 1818 - His mother, Nancy Hanks, died. 1831 - Failed in business. 1832 - Defeated for Illinois House of Representatives. 1832 - Lost his job, couldn't get into law school, worked odd jobs. 1832 - Chosen captain of company of volunteers which did not see battle in the Black Hawk War. 1833 - Grocery business failed. Declared bankruptcy, yet paid off the money he borrowed from friends to start his business. 1834 - Elected to Illinois state legislature and served four successive terms (until 1841). 1836 - Obtained license as an attorney. 1837 - Became law partner in Springfield, Illinois, with John T. Stuart. 1838 - Defeated in becoming speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. 1840 - Defeated in becoming elector. 1842 - Married Mary Todd on Nov. 4. They had four sons. 1843 - Defeated for US House of Representatives. 1847 - Served one term in US House of Representatives as a Whig. 1849 - Defeated for US House of Representatives. 1849 - Rejected for the position of Commissioner of the General Land Office. 1849 - Retired from politics. 1855 - Defeated for US Senate as a Whig. 1855 - Became a Republican. 1856 - Considered for vice-president (got less than 100 votes in convention). 1858 - Nominated as the Republican candidate for US Senator from Illinois. 1858 - Challenged Stephen A. Douglas. The seven debates became famous. 1858 - Defeated for US Senate as a Republican, he had made his mark. 1860 - Selected as the Republican candidate for president. 1860 - Elected president of the United States with a minority of the popular vote. 1861 - Inaugurated March 4. 1861 - Seven states had seceded by the time of his inauguration. 1861 - On April 12, Fort Sumter was fired upon and the Civil War had begun. 1863 - Issued Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1. 1864 - Elected to second term as president by a great majority. 1865 - On April 9, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant signed the terms of Confederate Surrender. 1865 - On April 14, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. He died the next morning.