1990s, Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
Context: It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.
“I am an improvised bridge, and when Someone passes over me, I crumble away behind Him.”
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: I am not alone in my fear, nor alone in my hope, nor alone in my shouting. A tremendous host, an onrush of the Universe fears, hopes, and shouts with me.
I am an improvised bridge, and when Someone passes over me, I crumble away behind Him.
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Nikos Kazantzakis 222
Greek writer 1883–1957Related quotes
“I decided not to cross any bridges I had burned behind me.”
Source: Time for the Stars (1956), Chapter 7, “19,900 Ways” (p. 69)
Preserving Words and Worlds https://onbeing.org/programs/columba-stewart-and-getatchew-haile-preserving-words-and-worlds/ (19 January 2009)
Song lyrics, Singles and rarities
“If I ask Him to receive me,
Will He say me nay?
Not till earth, and not till heaven
Pass away.”
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 153.
Ira Levinson, Chapter 5 Ira, p. 80
2009, The Longest Ride (2013)
1973
1968 - 1974, Electric chair quote
Source: Warhol in his own words – Untitled Statements ( 1963 – 1987), selected by Neil Printz; as quoted in Andy Warhol, retrospective, Art and Bullfinch Press / Little Brown, 1989, pp. 457 – 467
“When someone less capable is ahead of me, I am not pleased. It makes me insane.”
Source: An Object of Beauty