21 Quotes by Lillian Smith

  • Author Lillian Smith
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    No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    None but the weak crave to be better than. Strong men are satisfied with their own strength.

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    To find the point where hypothesis and fact meet; the delicate equilibrium between dream and reality; the place where fantasy and earthly things are metamorphosed into a work of art; the hour when faith in the future becomes knowledge of the past; to lay down one's power for others in need; to shake off the old ordeal and get ready for the new; to question, knowing that never can the full answer be found; to accept uncertainties quietly, even our incomplete knowledge of God; this is what man's journey is about, I think.

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    The question in crisis or ordeal is not: Are you going to be an extremist? The question is: What kind of extremist are you going to be?

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    For men tied fast to the absolute, bled of their differences, drained of their dreams by authoritarian leeches until nothing but pulp is left, become a massive, sick Thing whose sheer weight is used ruthlessly by ambitious men. Here is the real enemy of the people: our own selves dehumanized into the masses. And where is the David who can slay this giant?

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    Belief in Some One's right to punish you is the fate of all children in Judaic-Christian culture. But nowhere else, perhaps, have the rich seed-beds of Western homes found such a growing climate for guilt as is produced in the South by the combination of a warm moist evangelism and racial segregation.

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  • Author Lillian Smith
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    Segregation is evil; there is no pattern of life which can dehumanize men as can the way of segregation.

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