“with what violence benevolence is bought
what cost in gesture justice brings
what wrongs domestic rights involve
what stalks
this silence”
Part II
The Kingfishers (1950)
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Charles Olson9
American writer 1910–1970Related quotes
Ali book Nahj al-Balagha
Nahj al-Balagha
Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman
1860s, What the Black Man Wants (1865)
Context: In regard to the colored people, there is always more that is benevolent, I perceive, than just, manifested towards us. What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice. The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us... I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! … And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot box, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone, — your interference is doing him positive injury.
Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic
Source: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
“I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong.”
Anthony Burgess book A Clockwork Orange
Source: A Clockwork Orange
“Sometimes you have to do what’s wrong in order to do what’s right.”
Peter F. Hamilton book The Dreaming Void
Source: The Dreaming Void