Quotes About Struggle

It was a poor town—the meagerly stocked market was proof of that.

Why not?" "Because I'm not a broken branch. Dead things go downstream. That's a funeral procession on that creek. If we surrender to the current, we're doomed." He pointed his finger stump in the direction of the coast. "Everything tends that way. But we've got to fight it, because down there is death.

was reminded that the South is full of army vets from small towns and humble homes, the military their escape, sometimes their salvation, often their burden, and now and then their punishment.

the obstacles to becoming noticed or published

I think shows how nebulous some migrants regard this desire for transformation.

Transportation in China is always crowded; it is nearly always uncomfortable; it is often a struggle.

Many Mexicans I met—working in hotels, restaurants, and shops, driving taxis—had held jobs in the States and been thrown out.

Nothing is stranger than being in a fairly bad place and being told that another place-your destination-is a great deal worse.

the combination of killing, mutilation, and mass forced disappearance—was targeted directly at the students for being radical, organized, poor; rural and indigenous students of a school noted for its anti-government organizing

crooked police, cruel soldiers, and a government indifferent to the plight of most citizens.

Telling the truth and being ethical often keeps people from political power, but doing the right thing, always, without exception, is all that matters in the long run, and is ultimately powerful. That's why the true heroes of the civil rights struggle were never politicians. They were humble folk on a mission, enduring sit-ins and organizing marches and debates. When they began to succeed, the politicians, seeing an opportunity, followed them.

On that first visit, Nogales seemed to me a border town trying to save itself, and I thought succeeding. Walking in the city, I was struck by the distinct air of foreignness mingled with a pleasing ordinariness

All this confession and evasion, in the relentless interrogation of language learning, sometimes led to awkwardness.

People always tell you that night school is a good thing,' I said. 'But they are the same people who go home after a day's work and eat and snooze and listen to the radio. You students are doing one of the hardest things in the world- studying at night, when you're tired ...

You can work hard here and still earn very little.

Here we have poor people, but poor because they have no opportunities. It's sad.

desperation is often a rationale for exploitation

a city of poor housing and low spirits, of people living in the hovels Mexicans call jacales—workers' quarters, like plantation housing—and that none of the workers in the Oster factory had in their shack one of the coffee machines they toiled to make.

Eagle Pass seemed a town in decline.

Being a man is bad enough; being manly is appalling.

Wars of imperial conquest have not been solely or even mostly waged over the land and its resources, but they have been fought within the bodies, minds and hearts of the people of the earth for dominion over them.

She wanted to cry. To scream. To shriek like a crazy wind.

That was the last day I lived in my body. I retreated above the neck, and lived inside the fire in my head ever since.

The road to hell was paved with the bones of men who did not know when to quit fighting.