Top 100 Quotes About Minorities
#1. Democracy is not the law of the majority but the protection of the minority.
Albert Camus
#2. Faithful people have always been in a marked minority.
Arthur W. Pink
#3. George W. Bush brought a lot of minorities into his administration, which was a positive thing, and they had some issues that they wanted to press, but 9/11 really gave them direction. It gave them a purpose.
Josh Brolin
#4. If large numbers of people believe in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it. But if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them.
[Freedom of the Park, Tribune, 7 December 1945]
George Orwell
#5. America has a terrible educational problem in the sense that we have too many youngsters not finishing school. A third of our kids don't finish high school, 50 percent of minorities don't finish high school.
Colin Powell
#6. No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of the rights of minorities.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#7. It's very well known that the Republicans have problems with minorities. The Democrats have big problems with white people. Obama only got 39% of the vote. He only got 36% of the working-class white people.
Bill Maher
#8. And one day our grandkids will ask us, 'What was it like to be a minority?'
Christy Haubegger
#9. Throughout the past century there has always existed a significant minority of first-rate biologists who have never been able to bring themselves to accept the validity of Darwinian claims. In fact, the number of biologists who have expressed some degree of disillusionment is practically endless.
Michael Denton
#10. Since the birth of our Nation, no other right has been more important than having the ability to vote. Unfortunately, as history has shown, the denial of this right to minorities is a scar on our system of democracy.
Jan Schakowsky
#11. Most people don't realize that it's not just minorities who don't do well in science and engineering - quite frankly, you're talking about Americans.
Freeman A. Hrabowski III
#12. Democracy is based on the majority principle. This is especially true in a country such as ours where the vast majority have been systematically denied their rights. At the same time, democracy also requires that the rights of political and other minorities be safeguarded.
Nelson Mandela
#13. In Stalin's Russia racial persecution was often disguised as class warfare. More than 1.5 million members of ethnic minorities died as a result of forced resettlement.
Niall Ferguson
#14. I will not perform in this city as long as the blatant targeting of black culture and minorities congregating is acceptable common practice,
Illmaculate
#15. The reason that minorities and women don't have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.
Carol Moseley Braun
#16. A lot of authority figures want to be good. I sense that, and yet at the same time I sense that authority, after a while, always leads to some kind of oppression. When the minority report comes in, what you do is run the minority out of town with a flaming cross. It's just the way things are.
Stephen King
#17. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.
James K. Polk
#18. The clergy are at present divided into three sections: an immense body who are ignorant; a small proportion who know and are silent; and a minute minority who know and speak according to their knowledge.
Thomas Huxley
#19. In Congress the majority governs, but the minority rules.
Evan Esar
#20. Social and economic well-being will become a reality only through the zeal, courage, the non-compromising determination of intelligent minorities, and not through the mass.
Emma Goldman
#21. I believe we are being dishonest with language minority groups if we tell them they can take full part in American life without learning the English language.
S.I. Hayakawa
#22. I'm always very proud of belonging to three minorities: gay, Jewish, white South African.
Antony Sher
#23. We must settle this question now
whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.
Abraham Lincoln
#24. The most sacred business of judges is not to ratify the will of the majority but to protect the minority from its tyranny.
Anna Quindlen
#25. I wanted to represent minorities in the respect of people who had been bullied in school or people who were gay or lesbian or trans or people who aren't blonde haired and blue-eyed. I have short hair, and I am covered in tattoos. I like showing people that it's within their rights to be different.
Ruby Rose
#26. There are many of us now. Enough to be called a people in ourselves and not merely a mistake.
N.K. Jemisin
#27. I think you and the referee were in a minority of one, Billy.
Jimmy Armfield
#28. The nations which have put mankind and posterity most in their debt have been small states Israel, Athens, Florence, Elizabethan England.
Bill Vaughan
#29. Of strong importance to me is the defense of minority rights, not just racial minorities, but ideological and religious minorities.
Rand Paul
#30. Islam developed in opposition to orthodox Christianity from the very start, and it considers itself superior to Christianity. So far, it has only been tolerant in places where it is in the minority.
Walter Kasper
#31. The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time. And if you live long enough, as you're increasingly likely to do, you may well join it.
Nancy Mairs
#32. No American president can support an Egypt that calls into question the historic treaty between Israel and Egypt. And no American president can support an Egypt that doesn't fully recognize women's rights or the rights of religious minorities.
Condoleezza Rice
#33. Democrats may be in the minority in Congress, but we speak for the majority of Americans.
Edward Kennedy
#34. A revolution does not have to eat its children. In fact, it is those who are in power who could very well initiate revolutions. Let us not be old-fashioned and think only of armed uprisings of minorities as revolutions. Any movement that seeks to overhaul established attitudes is a revolution.
F. Sionil Jose
#35. In America, the problems of poverty and low income, particularly for minorities, are disproportionately focused in the inner cities. Shining a spotlight on the businesses growing in these communities is proof that any community has the potential for entrepreneurship.
Michael Porter
#36. A government is free in proportion to the rights it guarantees to the minority.
Alf Landon
#37. Holocaust Memorial Day is intended as an inclusive commemoration of all the individuals and communities who suffered as a result of the Holocaust - not only Jews, but also Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, political prisoners and dozens of ethnic and other minorities.
Jack Straw
#38. One of the great difficulties about being a member of a minority race is that so many kindhearted, well-meaning bores gather around to help.
Langston Hughes
#39. I became aware of my destiny: to belong to the critical minority as opposed to the unquestioning majority.
Sigmund Freud
#40. Canadians tend to be a bit more religious than most Europeans - though not more than the Poles or Ukrainians. Most important, their attitude to immigration and ethnic minorities is more positive than that of most Europeans.
Timothy Garton Ash
#41. I support the recommendations made by the International Crisis Group. The primary responsibility is for Kosovo Albanians to demonstrate that their treatment of minorities is adequate.
Emma Bonino
#42. Costs are incurred whenever any group is treated as lesser or the other, whether they are women, racial, or religious minorities, or the LGBT.
Hillary Clinton
#43. The only tyrannies from which men, women and children are suffering in real life are the tyrannies of minorities.
Theodore Roosevelt
#44. I think it is the weak and the young and the minorities that you need to look after to get a healthy creative environment - to get a lot of choices, a lot of different styles of music, a lot experimental stuff that everyone else feeds off.
Peter Gabriel
#45. It is a logical absurdity to equate democracy with freedom in the way that mainstream political philosophers and commentators typically do. A system where individuals and minorities are at the mercy of unconstrained majorities hardly constitutes freedom in any meaningful sense.
Keith Preston
#46. As minorities and other immigrant groups become more important to our economy, the inner city is a crucible that gives us an early look at phenomena that are going to be spreading more broadly in the economy over time.
Michael Porter
#47. Great truths always dwell a long time with small minorities, and the real voice of God is often that which rises above the masses, not that which follows them.
Francis Lieber
#48. Criminologists have documented that the amount of coverage a crime victim receives affects how much attention police devote to the case and the willingness of prosecutors to accept plea bargains.
Barry Glassner
#49. Features that offer value to a minority of users impose a cost on all users.
Douglas Crockford
#50. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2050 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived.
Pat Buchanan
#51. My own belief is that being gay is a regularly occurring nonpathological minority variant in the human condition, and that an appropriate analogy is left-handedness, which also, as it happens, used to be regarded as some sort of defect in a normatively right-handed humanity.
James Alison
#52. I would in fact tend to have more confidence in the outcome of a democratic decision if there was a minority that voted against it, than if it was unanimous ... Social psychology has amply shown the strength of this bandwagon effect.
Jurgen Habermas
#53. In Turkey the religious minorities have more rights than they do in Europe.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
#54. With the full realization that, in order to earn for ourselves any place in the sun, we must with perseverance and self-discipline work collectively for the full first-class citizenship participation of Minorities everywhere, including ourselves.
Harry Hay
#55. We libertarians are not the spokesmen for any ethnic or economic class; we are the spokesmen for all classes, for all of the public; we strive to see all of these groups united, hand-in-hand, in opposition to the plundering and privileged minority that constitutes the rulers of the State.
Murray Rothbard
#56. The whole of that part of Southern Africa which is controlled by racial minorities is experiencing either consistent and regular guerilla activity or is faced with advanced preparation for its commencement.
Joe Slovo
#57. My non-violence bids me dedicate myself to the service of the minorities.
Mahatma Gandhi
#58. Sometimes guns really matter. Protecting those who need protection - children, women, minorities in rough parts of town, old folks living in places where cops aren't nearby. Guns are true empowerment for the powerless.
Maya Angelou
#59. Liberals believe they own the franchise on minorities and can't stand any Hispanic or black who breaks rank.
Linda Chavez
#60. Being from a minority culture, I realised the importance of looking at non-Western cultures in a positive way.
Ibn Warraq
#61. I think that wealthy white people would like to have a country that resembles the Fifties, when all the minorities were tucked away in ghettos and paid in very low wages but on the surface it was very bright and shiny and free and the rest of the world would look on it longingly.
Alice Walker
#62. The last thing the Province needs is a minority government
Hazel McCallion
#63. I fully recognize and appreciate the many substantial contributions of black Americans and other minorities to the creation and preservation and development of our great nation.
Strom Thurmond
#64. When you look at where the real problems are among minorities in our society, particularly blacks, it's at the bottom. It's the people who are in school systems that don't educate, neighborhoods where there is a lot of crime, drugs, the whole bit.
Clarence Thomas
#65. Syria is the proud heir of an ancient civilization that has a unique spectrum of minorities that encompasses Muslims and Christians of various denominations. There are at least ten such ethnic and religious groups.
Ahmed Zewail
#66. Revolutions, we must remember, are always made by minorities.
Peter Kropotkin
#68. Minorities do not believe this country will give them a fair shake.
Cory Booker
#69. Democracy is for infidels. A real Muslim is not a democrat because he doesn't care about the opinions of majorities and minorities don't interest him. He is only interested in what Islam says.
Abdul Sattar Abu Risha
#70. The majority should not be punished and subjected to a licensing curfew because of the bad behavior of the minority.
Tessa Jowell
#71. And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed
Lee Harvey Oswald
#72. High school studfents are the largest oppressed minority in America.
Jerry Rubin
#73. This is the age in which thin and theoretic minorities can cover and conquer unconscious and untheoretic majorities.
G.K. Chesterton
#74. The Covenant of the League of Nations had envisaged sponsoring only the protection of certain categories of men: national minorities and populations of territories controlled by other countries.
Rene Cassin
#75. The speed of movement towards independence will depend on Kosovo demonstrating that it is capable of treating minorities well. We have not always seen that.
Emma Bonino
#76. Ever since I've had any political awareness, I've felt either alone or part of a tiny minority.
Noam Chomsky
#77. You preferred to be a lunatic, a minority of one.
George Orwell
#78. I still subscribe to the minority view that all horses are offensive weapons and not to be trusted a yard.
M.M. Kaye
#79. Shows like 'Seinfeld' and 'Friends,' they have, like, one or two damn characters throughout the whole series that are minorities.
Esai Morales
#80. It's not up to the courts to invent new minorities that get special protections.
Antonin Scalia
#81. In the Islamic Republic the rights of the religious minorities are respectfully regarded.
Ruhollah Khomeini
#82. There are certain standards, like the protection of minorities and the improvement in their lives that have to be improved now.
Martti Ahtisaari
#83. I feel worn down as a human being who has to constantly justify their existence to other human beings because I'm a minority
Killer Mike
#84. The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.
James Madison
#85. The idea of a bowed and terrified liberal minority during McCarthy's 'reign of terror' is poppycock. Then as now, all elite opinion was against McCarthy.
Ann Coulter
#86. I think we've learned that the S.B.A. plays a critical role in providing access and opportunity when the market is not providing that access. We help banks get that money out into the hands of important and viable businesses, particularly those owned by minorities, women, immigrants and veterans.
Karen Mills
#87. The God of the Bible is a God who specializes in minorities and who works through remnants.
Brian Johnston
#88. The recognition of rights for women and minorities became a large part of my understanding of what this country is all about.
Faye Wattleton
#89. Counterfeit tolerance includes the opportunism of one who seeks, or accepts, tolerance for himself, as a minority, but who would deny it to others if ever he should be in a position to grant it.
Carl Joachim Friedrich
#90. Long ago I ceased to count heads. Truth is usually in the minority in this evil world
Charles Spurgeon
#91. Go watch (Minority Report) if you can bear Tom Cruise for that long
Kara Swisher
#92. The Tea Party is protecting its millionaire and oil company friends while gutting critical services that they know protect the livelihood of African-Americans, as well as Latinos and other disadvantaged minorities,
Andre Carson
#93. fringe groups representing national minorities who could imagine that somehow the destruction of states provided opportunities.
Timothy Snyder
#95. Look at television and how comparatively few minorities are out there.
Gedde Watanabe
#96. Do you see any majority, anywhere, in this imperfect and irreligious world, admitting that the minority is precious? That any minority is precious?
Katharine Fullerton Gerould
#97. I've always found that avoiding insanity is useful in life - which in American politics sometimes puts one in the minority.
Tony Blankley
#98. When you use the term minority or minorities
in reference to people, you're telling them that
they're less than somebody else.
Gwendolyn Brooks
#99. One wonders how much real conversation there is when one party does not, in many districts, have to contend for the votes of minorities, and the other can only elevate minorities into positions of power when the political wind is blowing in its direction.
Garrance Franke-Ruta
#100. Multiculturalism is only in the West. We are absorbing a large number of Muslims in the west and at the same time the Christians and the Jews and other minorities are fleeing the Middle East, churches are being burnt, nobody is talking about it. Where are the religious freedom of the minorities.
Mark Durie
