Thurgood Marshall Quotes

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Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall

Birthname

Birthday July 2, 1908

Death January 24, 1993

Manner of Death Natural Causes, Pequis Pennis, Por Comer Nueses En La Casa De Maichel Jackson, Homiside, Alzheimer, Difundidosnif

Educated At Howard University, Lincoln University

Political Parties Democratic Party

Nationality United States Of America, Republic Of The Congo

Occupations Judge, Lawyer, Prostitute

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Total quotes (24)

Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core.

— Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall Quotes

Words Powerful Words impact People

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We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

parent Teacher helping hand Compassion

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I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Service Death Jealousy Lifetime Appointment

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We can always stick together when we are losing, but tend to find means of breaking up when we’re winning. In Grace under Pressure.

— Thurgood Marshall, Grace under Pressure

Grace Losing Winning Unity Sticking Together pressure

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History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

History Liberty Constitutional Rights Threat

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The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

country Greatness Compassion Crisis

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A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Man Belief believing Hard Work Heartbreaks

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Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Classification distinction Race Color Morality Society Constitution Laws

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The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much.

— Thurgood Marshall, The Philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

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Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Equality Equal in everything Time Place

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Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.

— Thurgood Marshall, The Philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

Inequality Injustice Democracy

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None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody—a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns—bent down and helped us pick up our boots.

— Thurgood Marshall, The Philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

Bootstraps Ivy League Cooperation

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Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.

— Thurgood Marshall, We The People

Constitution document Freedom Amendment

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Surely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.

— Thurgood Marshall, Dissenting opinion in 7-2 ruling that upheld police rules on short haircuts and no beards

Police Identity Uniform fact

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Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Control Giving Government Men Power

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What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Intent realization Individuality

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[Ending racial discrimination in jury selection] can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

discrimination racism Challenge

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If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

First Amendment Reading Books Films Business Freedom Democracy

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Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

lawlessness Anarchy excuses

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In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

— Thurgood Marshall, The Philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall

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A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi . . . has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Children America Challenge Goals Motherhood Worth rights equal rights

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The government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war, and major social transformations to attain the system of constitutional government and its respect for the freedoms and individual rights, we hold as fundamental today.

— Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall Quotes

Government Defective Amendment War Transformation Freedom rights

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Some may more quietly commemorate the suffering, struggle, and sacrifice that has triumphed over much of what was wrong with the original document, and observe the anniversary with hopes not realized and promises not fulfilled. I plan to celebrate the bicentennial of the Constitution as a living document, including the Bill of Rights and the other amendments protecting individual freedoms and human rights.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

Suffering Struggle Sacrifice Celebration Constitution

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We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.

— Thurgood Marshall, Thurgood Marshall Quotes

Indifference Apathy Fear Hatred Mistrust Poverty Government America

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