Quotes About Struggle

THE significance of the religion of Jesus to people who stand with their backs against the wall has always seemed to me to be crucial.

MANY and varied are the interpretations dealing with the teachings and the life of Jesus of Nazareth. But few of these interpretations deal with what the teachings and the life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.

Today, at the close of Thurman's century, those people who live most obviously with their backs against the wall—for instance, the homeless, the working and jobless poor, the substance abused and abusers, the alienated, misguided, and essentially abandoned young people—are rarely within hearing or seeing range of the company of Jesus' proclaimed followers.

Thurman proclaims that Jesus, a poor non-Roman Jew, knew intimately what it meant to be "a member of a minority group in the midst of a larger dominant and controlling group." Therefore, Thurman declares, "the teachings and the life of Jesus" have something special "to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.

Even as Thurman recognizes that Christianity has been used throughout history as "an instrument of oppression," he makes clear "that Christianity as it was born in the mind of [Jesus] appears as a technique of survival for the oppressed.

Thurman goes on to provide a theological testimony of faith concerning the one who "announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over [those with their backs against the wall].

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have heard a sermon on the meaning of religion, of Christianity, to the man who stands with his back against the wall. It is urgent that my meaning be crystal clear. The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them?

This book provides a message to Black children on how to thrive and flourish in a world that attempts to destroy their humanity from the "inside" out.

FEAR is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited.

The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them?

The memory of oppressed people is one thing that cannot be taken away, and for such people, with such memories, revolt is always an inch below the surface.

Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals the fierce conflicts of interest (sometimes exploding, often repressed) between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such as world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners.

In the long run, the oppressor is also a victim. In the short run (and so far, human history has consisted only of short runs), the victims, themselves desperate and tainted with the culture that oppresses them, turn on other victims.

And when I first saw you I first loved you With a song that I sang to the fire in your eyes But somebody told you that it wouldn't be easy And you carried that lie for the devil to sing Some sail rivers deep and muddy some sail rivers clear and cold But the river that I'm sailin' goes to sea And sometimes I do grow weary sometimes I feel old And sometimes I wonder if you think of me.

The dealer for a nickel Lord, will sell you lots of sweet dreams Ah, but the pusher ruin your body Lord, he'll leave your, he'll leave your mind to scream.

God damn, The Pusher God damn, I say The Pusher I said God damn, God damn The Pusher man.

You know, I've seen a lot of people walkin' 'round With tombstones in their eyes But the pusher don't care Ah, if you live or if you die.

You know I've smoked a lot of grass O' Lord, I've popped a lot of pills But I never touched nothin' That my spirit could kill.

Cuba coule en flammes au milieu du lac Léman pendant que je descends au fond des choses.

Ozour pourtant est las du voyage. On part découragé, en lâche ou en héros, dans l'illusion d'une autre vie, mais il n'y a pas d'issue. L'exil est une prison.

There are those who say to you -- we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.

Is het mogelijk, dat voor sommige mensen, het hele leven lang, een bepaalde angst niet meer ophoudt?

met mijn schijnbare trots als onmisbaar pantser voor mijn kwetsbaarheid in een al met al vrij crapuleuze wereld

We're at war with nature. If we win, we're lost.