Ronald Takaki quotes

“Our expanding ethnic diversity of this century, a time when we will all be minorities, offers us an invitation to create a larger memory of who we are as Americans and to re-affirm our founding principle of equality. Let's put aside fears of the disuniting of America and warnings of the clash of civilizations. As Langston Hughes sang, Let America be America, where equality is in the air we breathe.”
-- Ronald Takaki

Source : "What does it mean to be Asian American? / The passing of Cal Prof. Ronald Takaki, who helped define the term, leads Jeff Yang to reflect on its relevance in the Age of Obama" by Jeff Yang, www.sfgate.com. June 4, 2009.

#Time Quotes #Memories Quotes #Equality Quotes

“The task for me is to not only comprehend the world, but to change the world. I would like to see a world where America lives up to its ideals, and resolves the contradiction between reality and principles.”
-- Ronald Takaki

#Reality Quotes #America Quotes #Principles Quotes

“How can diverse Americans become "one people"? I believe that one path is for us to pursue the study of the past that includes all of us, making all of us feel connected to one another as "we the people," working and living in a nation, founded and "dedicated" (to use Lincoln's language) to the "proposition" that "all men are created equal."”
-- Ronald Takaki

#Believe Quotes #Past Quotes #Men Quotes

“The nation was founded and "dedicated," to use Lincoln's language in the "Gettysburg Address," to equality as a "self-evident truth." But this very principle of equality, as Lincoln also noted, was a "proposition." To make it a reality remained "the unfinished work" of Americans.”
-- Ronald Takaki

#Reality Quotes #Unfinished Work Quotes #Self Quotes

“The absolutely Non-Manifested cannot be designated by any expression which could limit It, Separate It, or include It. In spite of this, every allusion alludes only to Him, every designation designates Him, and He is at the same time the Non-Manifested and the Manifested.”

“Nothing is there to come, and nothing past, But an eternal Now does always last.”

Source : Abraham Cowley (1679). “The Works of Mr Abraham Cowley: Consisting of Those which Were Formerly Printed : and Those which He Design'd for the Press”, p.11

“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

“The time comes upon every public man when it is best for him to keep his lips closed.”

“It's hard to say what I want my legacy to be when I'm long gone.”

“I want to have the memories of my time with you to keep me warm.”

“These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.”

“Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality.”

Source : Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

“Democratic communities have a natural taste for freedom: left to themselves they will seek it, cherish it, and view any deprivation of it with regret. But for equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, invincible: they call for equality in freedom; and if they cannot obtain that, they still call for equality in slavery.”

“I am fiscally prudent and socially progressive. I believe in protecting a woman's right to choose. I believe in marriage equality.”