“And still when the delicate and unconscious machinery of race relations slips, there will be murder again. How can law contradict the lives of millions of people and hope to be administered successfully?”
pg. 361
Native Son (1940)
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Richard Wright 130
African-American writer 1908–1960Related quotes
“Still, it doesn't do to murder people, no matter how offensive they may be.”
Source: Five Red Herrings
Fifth Thesis
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)
Rome, or Reason? A Reply to Cardinal Manning. Part I. The North American Review (1888)
Context: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith." It is not necessary, before all things, that he be good, honest, merciful, charitable and just. Creed is more important than conduct. The most important of all things is, that he hold the Catholic faith. There were thousands of years during which it was not necessary to hold that faith, because that faith did not exist; and yet during that time the virtues were just as important as now, just as important as they ever can be. Millions of the noblest of the human race never heard of this creed. Millions of the bravest and best have heard of it, examined, and rejected it. Millions of the most infamous have believed it, and because of their belief, or notwithstanding their belief, have murdered millions of their fellows. We know that men can be, have been, and are just as wicked with it as without it.
“Law can change how people behave when others are watching — that's all.”
Homecoming saga, Earthborn (1995)
“How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.”
Attributed to Hitler, without source, in a 1992 book of quotations https://books.google.com/books?id=FwICBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT96&dq=%22the+people+they+administer+don%27t+think%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic_p2MxqfLAhUBE2MKHTC-CgQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20people%20they%20administer%20don't%20think%22&f=false.
Disputed
Source: How to Become President (1940), Ch. 5 : Issues and how to pick them
Context: Today millions of people are living who will never do it again. Millions are being born for the first time–and millions are doing nothing because it’s the best offer they’ve had this week. … It is for these people and many others that the Surprise Party is conceived and desecrated, founded upon the principle that everybody is just as good as anybody else, even though they aren’t quite so smart.
