“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
Erin Gruwell
Born place: in The United States
Born date August 15, 1969
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“Because we were duped I tell you, duped as even yet we hardly realize; because we were misused, hideously misused. They told us it was for the Fatherland, and meant the schemes of annexation of a greedy industry.--They told us it was for Honor, and meant the quarrels and the will to power of a handful of ambitious diplomats and princes.--They told us it was for the Nation, and meant the need for activity on the part of out-of-work generals!...Can't you see? They stuffed out the word Patriotism with all the twaddle of their fine phrases, with their desire for glory, their will to power, their false romanticism, their stupidity, their greed of business, and then paraded it before us as a shining ideal! And we thought they were sounding a bugle summoning us to a new, a more strenuous, a larger life. Can't you see, man? But we were making war against ourselves without even knowing it!...
There is only one fight, the fight against the lie, the half-truth, compromise, against the old order. But we let ourselves be taken in by their phrases; and instead of fighting against them, we fought for them. We thought it was for the Future. It was against the Future. Our future is dead; for the youth is dead that carried it. We are merely the survivors, the ruins. But the other is alive still--the fat, the full, the well content, that lives on, fatter and fuller, more contented than ever! And why? Because the dissatisfied, the eager, the storm troops have died for it.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, quote from The Road Back
“He came third in the state for woodwork,”
Francesca explains. “We actually had to be proud of him for a whole week. Tough times.”
― Melina Marchetta, quote from The Piper's Son
“If you had ordered British troops to drive children and old people into gas chambers, none of whom had done anything wrong except they were the children of their parents, can you imagine British troops doing anything but mutiny against such orders?
"Well, as a matter of fact there were some Germans, soldiers, officers, priests, doctors, and ordinary civilians who refused to obey these orders and said, 'I am not going to do this because I would not like to live and have this on my conscience. I'm not going to push them into gas chambers and then say later I was under orders and justify it by saying they were going to be pushed in by someone anyhow, and I can't stop it and other people will push them more cruelly. Therefore, it's in their best interest that I shove them in gently.'
"You see, the trouble was, not enough of these people refused.”
― Leon Uris, quote from QB VII
“I see perfection in things that are likely considered imperfections by others.”
― Jessica Park, quote from Left Drowning
“But she didn't fall. Someone was there, reaching an arm around her waist to steady her. She looked up expecting to see Nic, but it was Magnus.
His dark brows were drawn tightly together. "Problem, princess?”
― Morgan Rhodes, quote from Rebel Spring
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