„I am not a criminal. I have nothing to be ashamed of. We are workers, mothers, human beings. We should be able to be proud of who we are.“

— Elvira Arellano

Hispanic Magazine (August 2007)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021.

Elvira Arellano2

Mexican illegal immigrant and activist 1975

Related quotes

„Why should I? I've done nothing to be ashamed of. I am not ashamed - I am only beaten“

— John Wyndham, book The Chrysalids

Source: The Chrysalids

„Peace by persuasion has a pleasant sound, but I think we should not be able to work it. We should have to tame the human race first, and history seems to show that that cannot be done.“

— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910

Peace, History, Thinking, Peaceful

„We have in fact only two certainties in this world—that we are not everything and that we will die. To be conscious of not being everything, as one is of being mortal, is nothing. But if we are without a narcotic, an unbreathable void reveals itself. I wanted to be everything, so that falling into this void, I might summon my courage and say to myself: “I am ashamed of having wanted to be everything, for I see now that it was to sleep.” From that moment begins a singular experience. The mind moves in a strange world where anguish and ecstasy coexist.“

— Georges Bataille French intellectual and literary figure 1897 - 1962

Source: L’Expérience Intérieure (1943), p. xxxii

World, Courage, Sleep

„Alone, i am nothing. i have nothing. we have power. but we will never know it, we will never see it work. unless we come together to make it work.“

— Ayi Kwei Armah, book The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Source: The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

„I want good people to come here from all over the world, but I want them to do so legally. We can expedite the process, we can reward achievement and excellence, but we have to respect the legal process. And those people who take advantage of the system and come here illegally should never enjoy the benefits of being a resident--or citizen--of this nation. So I am against any path to citizenship for undocumented workers or anyone else who is in this country illegaly. They should--and need to--go home and get in line.“

— Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States of America 1946

Source: 2010s, 2015, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again (2015), p. 30

People, World, Home, Country

„We must not be squeamish when we learn that a total of 17,000 have been shot. We are now duty bound to hold together, we who are gathered together here figure on Mr. Roosevelt's list of war criminals. I have the honour of being Number One.“

— Hans Frank German war criminal 1900 - 1946

Speech on the need to exterminate the Poles, January 25, 1943, quoted in "The Trial of the Germans" - Page 439 - by Eugene Davidson - History - 1997

War, Learning

„We've made the Middle East more unstable and chaotic than ever before. We left Christians subject to intense persecution and even genocide. We have done nothing to help the Christians, nothing, and we should always be ashamed for that lack of action.“

— Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States of America 1946

2010s, 2016, April, Foreign Policy Speech (27 April 2016)

Help

„When I'm feeling proud of myself, I should remember to ask myself why I think I am of any value at all. I have done nothing that a hundred thousand other people couldn't do, and most of them would probably do it better, and they probably wouldn't feel so self-important about it. I should always be ashamed of myself.“

— John S. Hall Poet, author, singer, lawyer 1960

November 8
Quotes from Daily Negations (2007)

People, Feeling, Thinking

„In victory and more especially in defeat, we should stand behind and be proud of Pacquiao. He has nothing to be ashamed of. Pacquiao gave it his all. It just so happened that Marquez was the better boxer, at least for today. My congratulations to him.“

— Francis Escudero Filipino politician 1969

Francis Escudero Twitter feed: @SayChiz (10:40 p.m. 2012 December 09).
2012, Twitter Feed

Victory

„For a human being, nothing comes naturally,” said Grumman. “We have to learn everything we do.“

— Philip Pullman, book The Subtle Knife

Stanislaus Grumman to Lee Scoresby in Ch. 14 : Alamo Gulch
Source: His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife (1997)

Nature, Learning

„We have nothing to fear but our mothers.“

— Anne Taintor American artist 1953

Fear

„We are able to be with others only to the degree that we are able to be ourselves. This being so, we can only be in the performance to the degree that we can be ourselves: to be who we are.“

— Robert Fripp English guitarist, composer and record producer 1946

The Six Principles of the Performance Event

„Fear is an instinct, like hunger or anger. We need it to help us survive, and it is nothing to be ashamed of. It lets us know whether we should fight or flee.“

— David Clement-Davies, book The Sight

Source: The Sight

Hunger, Fear, Help, Fight

„And I thought that were we now to obtain political liberty, of which we talk so much, while engaged in biting one another, we should not know what to do with it, we should waste it in accusing one another in the newspapers of being spies and money-grubbers, we should frighten society with the assurance that we have neither men, nor science, nor literature, nothing! Nothing!“

— Anton Chekhov Russian dramatist, author and physician 1860 - 1904

Note-Book of Anton Chekhov (1921)

Men, Money, Literature, Science

„The learning process is endless. We must read, we must observe, we must assimilate, and we must ponder that to which we expose our minds. I believe in the evolution of the mind, the heart, and the soul of humanity. I believe in improvement. I believe in growth. There is nothing quite as invigorating as being able to evaluate and then solve a difficult problem, to grapple with something that seems unsolvable and then find a resolution.“

— Gordon B. Hinckley, book Standing for Something

Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes.

Soul, Problem, Learning, Reading

„I am looking for the human who admits his flaws
Who shocks the adversary
By being kinder not stronger
What would that be like?
We don't even know“

— Naomi Shihab Nye American writer 1952

Source: Honeybee: Poems Short Prose

„I am personally ashamed that men have to prove that they are not “kangaroos.” When bigots attack a colored man, I ashamed that my skin also is white. During the War, in Amsterdam, I felt shame because a starving mother wept over a can of beans for her child. I was ashamed of my fat. And on D-Day, and again later in Korea, I had a sense of shame at being alive when so many around me had to die. When this kind of shame is banished from the Earth, then perhaps we will have that civilization man has been striving for, for so many centuries.“

— Bill Downs American journalist 1914 - 1978

This I Believe (1951)
Context: My favorite story on this subject is the one that was being whispered in Moscow when I was assigned there for CBS back in 1943. It concerns a hapless individual, running down the street in a Russian village, his clothing flung over one arm and a loaf of bread tucked under the other. "Pavel," a friend calls, "where are you running to?" "Haven't you heard?" Pavel replies. "Tomorrow they're going to sterilize all kangaroos." "But there are no kangaroos in the Ukraine," the friend declares. "Yes," answers Pavel, "but can you prove that you’re not one?" I am personally ashamed that men have to prove that they are not “kangaroos.” When bigots attack a colored man, I ashamed that my skin also is white. During the War, in Amsterdam, I felt shame because a starving mother wept over a can of beans for her child. I was ashamed of my fat. And on D-Day, and again later in Korea, I had a sense of shame at being alive when so many around me had to die. When this kind of shame is banished from the Earth, then perhaps we will have that civilization man has been striving for, for so many centuries.

Men, War, Color, Sense