Social Justice & HumanityAs published
“The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.
— Cornel West
Philosopher and activist
About this quote
- Attributed to
- Cornel West
- Published in
- Whispering Sages: From Their Mouths To Your Ears
- Attribution status
- As published
Photo: Jakub Hałun · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source · Portrait: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Reflect
What would change if you lived this for one week?
The Sage Challenge
Write one sentence in your journal about what this means to you.
Join to journal, save & shareCreate a share imageWatch & listen
Mahatma Gandhi's Speech (Unedited Voice)
indiavideodotorg·Justice
Featured in one of the Sage books
MLK - A Knock at Midnight
godisanegro·Justice
Featured in one of the Sage books
"We Shall Overcome" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
trippin2billie·Justice
Featured in one of the Sage books
More from Cornel West & related wisdom
Justice✓ Verified source
“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

— William Wilberforce
Accepting the position of leader of the anti-slavery campaign.
Justice✓ Verified source
“You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.
— Fannie Lou Hamer
As transcribed in “We're on our way,” Speech before a mass meeting held at the negro Baptist school in Indianola, Mississippi (September 1964)