Social Justice Topics for Final Paper
1 .“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which
produces beggars needs restructuring.”
— Martin Luther King
2. “Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor
work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money
makers.”
- César Chávez
3. Together with the works of mercy, feeding, clothing and sheltering our brothers, we must
indoctrinate.
- Dorothy Day
4. “Ambition is the desire to go forward and improve one's condition. It is a burning flame that lights up
the life of the individual and makes him see himself in another state. To ambitious is to be great in mind
and soul. To want that which is worth while and strive for it. To go on without looking back, reaching to
that which gives satisfaction.”
- Marcus Garvey
5. “Peace is the fruit of love, a love that is also justice. But to grow in love requires work -- hard work.
And it can bring pain because it implies loss -- loss of the certitudes, comforts, and hurts that shelter and
define us.”
― Jean Vanier
6. “If there is no friendship with them [the poor] and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no
authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.”
-Gustavo Gutierrez
7. “Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result
itself.”
- Jane Addams
8. “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one
class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither
persons nor property will be safe.”
- Frederick Douglass
9. “I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving
mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.”
- Thomas Paine
10. “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can
have.”
- James A. Baldwin
11. “Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.”
- Elanor Roosevelt
12. "Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the
silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."
- Archbishop Oscar Romero
13. “The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
- John F. Kennedy
14. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that
place must — at that moment — become the center of the universe.”
- Elie Wisel
15. “To cheapen the lives of any group of men, cheapens the lives of all men, even our own. This is a law
of human psychology, or human nature. And it will not be repealed by our wishes, nor will it be merciful
to our blindness.”
― William Pickens
16. “Women should have free access to every field of labor which they care to enter, and when their
work is as valuable as that of a man it should be paid as highly.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
17. “The true civilization is where every man gives to every other man every right he claims for himself.”
― Robert G. Ingersoll
18. "You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man,
but not an idea."
-- Benazir Bhutto
19. "Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of
suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life..."
-- Jimmy Carter
20. The idea of cultural relativism is nothing but an excuse to violate human rights.
-- Shirin Ebadi
21. “If access to health care is considered a human right, who is considered human enough to have that
right?”
-- Paul Farmer
22. Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as
one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.
-- Mohandas Gandhi
23. The world does not need a war against ‘terrorism’, it needs a culture of peace based on human rights
for all.
-- Irene Khan
24. We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be
respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.
-- Rigoberta Menchu
25. "The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people. This
change is not the result of force but of dedication, of moral persuasion. "
- Stephen Biko
26.” if we wish to accomplish in the next 15 years what we failed to accomplish in the last 15, we would
do well to focus on democratizing structures of power. That means imagining, and then creating,
economic democracy.”
-- Marjorie Kelly
27. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
-- Nelson Mandela
28. "We are way more powerful when we turn to each other and not on each other, when we celebrate
our diversity, focus on our commonality, and together tear down the mighty walls of injustice."
- Cynthia McKinney
29. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.”
- Mark Twain
30. “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at
least don't hurt them.”
- Dalai Lama
31. Whenever men take the law into their own hands, the loser is the law. And when the law loses,
freedom languishes.
- Robert Kennedy
32. No foreign policy - no matter how ingenious - has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a
few and carried in the hearts of none.
- Henry Kissinger