Quotes About Diversity

There is so much work to be done to treat gays and lesbians and gay and lesbian couples with the respect that they're entitled to. They deserve, in my judgment, partnership benefits. They deserve to be treated fairly when it comes to adoption and immigration.

And my experience in the music scene had shown me that there were places for places in the world where misfits were welcome.

Saying you "have" something implies that it's temporary and undesirable. Asperger's isn't like that. You've been Aspergian as long as you can remember, and you'll be that way all your life. It's a way of being, not a disease.

When today's brain scientists talk Asperger's, there's no mention of damage—just difference. Neurologists have not identified anything that's missing or ruined in the Asperger brain. That's a very important fact. We are not like the unfortunate people who've lost millions of neurons through strokes, drinking, lead poisoning, or accidental injury. Our brains are complete; it's just the interconnections that are different.

Bill Gates is said to be Aspergian. Musician Glenn Gould is said to have been Aspergian, along with scientist Albert Einstein, actor Dan Aykroyd, writer Isaac Asimov, and movie director Alfred Hitchcock. As adults, none of those people would be described as disabled, but they were certainly eccentric and different.

So is there a cure?' I asked. 'It's not a disease,' he explained. 'It doesn't need curing. It's just how you are

It has always bothered me that many people, doctors included, tend to view anything that deviates from the typical as being abnormal or broken.

Individuals are labeled "different," "geeky," "abnormal," or even "Aspergian" or "autistic" at a young age. Among other things, these labels suggest that the people around them—their family, friends, teachers, and counselors—can't relate to their actions and expressions.

The world is full of friendly people with no technical skills.

Every man ... should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is pleasing to one is to make a pillow of the mind.

If you and another person had exactly the same values, one of you would not be necessary!

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America—there are no "white" or "colored" signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. [Commencement Address at American University, June 10 1963]

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." [ Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Voice of America ; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, February 26, 1962]

Were people to mingle only with those of like mind, every man would be an insulate being." Thomas Jefferson

My mission, I guess, has always been the kind of world where lesbian and gay people can celebrate who we are with equal freedom, dignity, and respect.

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.

Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.

What a brotherband!" he declared. "A thief, a touchy first mate, a shortsighted bear, a joker, two twins who can't tell each other apart, a bookworm and a skirl who doesn't know the right shape for a ship's sail." He beamed at all of them, then added, "I can't think of better qualities in a wolfship's crew.

There are only two races on this planet - the intelligent and the stupid.

Women are women, and hurray for that.