Quotations for Inspiration
The quotations and passages shared below can be used as discussion prompts, classroom ‘quotes of the day,” or just for inspiration! They’re some of our favorites, and we hope they will inspire and motivate you.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
John F. Kennedy
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Martin Niemöller
I know there is strength in the differences between us. I know there is comfort, where we overlap.
Ani DiFranco
It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
He who is different from me does not impoverish me – he enriches me. Our unity is constituted in something higher than ourselves – in Man… For no man seeks to hear his own echo, or to find his reflection in the glass.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
It is never too late to give up your prejudices.
Henry David Thoreau
Strength lies in differences, not in similarities
Stephen R. Covey
If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
John F. Kennedy
Never judge someone
By the way he looks
Or a book by the way it’s covered;
For inside those tattered pages,
There’s a lot to be discovered
Stephen Cosgrove
Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.
Albert Einstein
It always seems impossible until it’s done.
Nelson Mandela
Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.
Robert Green Ingersoll
Let a good man do good deeds with the same zeal that the evil man does bad ones.
Belzer Rabbi
The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
Ralph W. Sockman
An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Love thy enemies, it says in the scriptures. My foster mother always added, ‘At the very least, you will be polite to them.
Patricia Briggs, Moon Called
Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
Mahatma Gandhi
Tolerance only for those who agree with you is no tolerance at all.
Ray Davis
The highest result of education is tolerance.
Helen Keller
If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.
Gene Roddenberry
Wide differences of opinion in matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.
Theodore Roosevelt
Recognize yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.
Carlos Fuentes
Civilization is the encouragement of differences.
Mahatma Gandhi
Preservation of one’s own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures.
Cesar Chavez
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Diversity may be the hardest thing for a society to live with, and perhaps the most dangerous thing for a society to be without.
William Sloane Coffin Jr.
Fear of the unknown and the other is the root of almost all hate. It is born of ignorance and fed by those who would keep us divided.
Tinnekke Bebout
We are all the same, and we are all different. What great friends we will be.
Kelly Moran, The Tiny Caterpillar and the Great Big Tree
A love of neighbor manifests itself in the tolerance not only of opinions of others but, what is more important, of the essence and uniqueness of others, when we subscribe to that religious philosophy of life that insists that God has made each man and woman an individual sacred personality endowed with a specific temperament, created with differing needs, hungers, dreams. This is a variegated, pluralistic world where no two stars are the same and every snowflake has its own distinctive pattern. God apparently did not want a regimented world of sameness.
Joshua Loth Liebman
I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
One man alone can’t defeat the forces of evil, but many good people coming together can.
Harold Kushner
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.
Audre Lorde
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.
Cesar Chavez
Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.
Mahatma Gandhi