“Don't let the actions of a few determine the way you feel about an entire group. Remember, not all German's were Nazis.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Evil prevails when good people do nothing.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you tell kids they're stupid--directly or indirectly--sooner or later they start to believe it.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“It would be easy to become a victim of our circumstances and continue feeling sad, scared or angry; or instead, we could choose to deal with injustice humanely and break the chains of negative thoughts and energies, and not let ourselves sink into it.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Society just doesn't care about young people anymore, even if we are the future.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“...choose to deal with inhumane situations in a humane way, we can turn the world around and create positive lessons for ourselves and for others.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. ... World peace is only a dream because people won't allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts. We won't allow the color of a man's heart to be the color of his skin, the premise of his beliefs, and his self-worth. We won't allow him to be a peanut, therefore we won't allow ourselves to come to live in harmony. (Diary 18)”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Fights don't solve matters, they just make things worse. (Diary 19)”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Silence ensures that history repeats itself.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Ruining is a gift .. it's the way of changing.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Because if they grow up holding on to such terrible feelings, it could lead to another war come time in the future when the fate of the country is in their hands.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“There were more courses than O.J. has alibis.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“I always say that the young people are the future of the world, and if we start with them first, if we educate and develop a sense of tolerance among them, our future, the future of this world, will be in good hands for generations to come.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“i loved the freedom writers diary and even though i only read it because my teacher made us i loved the book. it shows me some feelings that i also feel sometimes, and even though i never finished reading it because i got lazy its the only book ive ever liked”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught. Since the day we enter this world we were a label, a number, a statistic, that's just the way it is. Now if you ask me what race I am, like Zlata, I'll simply say, "I'm a human being.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Be the kind of people that have enough passion to change the world. If we let ourselves be fire, thunder, or lightning, we could alter everything.”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way. Diary”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“They say America is the "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave" but what's so free about a land where people get killed?”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“That’s exactly what we all are. We spend so much time trying to figure out what race a person is when we could just get to know them as individuals. I felt like answering their question with a question. Does it matter? Will it make a difference if she is Croatian, Muslim, Serbian?”
― Erin Gruwell, quote from The Freedom Writers Diary
“Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference...”
― Blaise Pascal, quote from Pensées
“You really liked having him in jail, like people who shut birds up in cages on the excuse that they're protecting them from their enemies.”
― Costas Taktsis, quote from The Third Wedding
“Without discussing it with his mother, Anton went up to his teacher, Miss Katballe, and informed her that after seven years he was now quitting school. It was the best day of her life, she replied. With unexpected politeness he bowed, thanked her, and said, likewise.”
― Carsten Jensen, quote from We, the Drowned
“I can't stop thinking about dying the way humans do it. Imagine! If at any moment, you could just stop existing. How different everything would be.." They don't stop existing Lenia said...They have souls that live forever. Even knowing that, they fight so hard to stay alive. I think it's so beautiful. Imagine: being that fragile, that permanent.”
― Carolyn Turgeon, quote from Mermaid
“You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!”
― Sophocles, quote from The Complete Plays
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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