John Lewis
Politician
"You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage."
Speaks Out quotes
Speaks Out
190 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Robert Kennedy
Politician
"Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice."
Saint Augustine
Theologian, Philosopher
"If you are silent, be silent out of love. If you speak, speak out of love."
Freddie Mercury
Musician, Singer
"I'm not afraid to speak out, and say things that I want to do, or do the things that I want to do, so um, I think in the end, being natural, and being, being actually genuine is what wins."
Barack Obama
Politician
"Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance."
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Speaks Out quotes (page 1 of 10)
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"When silence or tricks of language contribute to maintaining an abuse that must be reformed or a suffering that can be relieved, then there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak."
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"I have seen firsthand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority. Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged."
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"One has to speak out and stand up for one's convictions. Inaction at a time of conflagration is inexcusable."
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"It's the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that America is a constant work in progress; who believed that loving this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires the occasional disruption, the willingness to speak out for what's right, and shake up the status quo."
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"If you see something wrong, if you speak out...you can change it."
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"I am hopeful that others who have suffered sexual harassment will not become discouraged by my experience, but instead will find the strength to speak out about this serious problem."
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"When you complain, you make yourself a victim. When you speak out, you are in power."
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"Failure is not the opposite to success, it's a stepping stone to success. If our primary goal is to be approved of, then we are not going to take risks, we are not going to speak out, we are going to try to blend in."
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"When the imagination sleeps, words are emptied of their meaning: a deaf population absent-mindedly registers the condemnation of a man. ... there is no other solution but to speak out and show the obscenity hidden under the verbal cloak."
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"The key.. will be a new public awareness of how serious is the threat to the global environment. Those who have a vested interest in the status quo will probably continue to be able to stifle any meaningful change until enough citizens.. are willing to speak out."
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"If you see your brother about to be harmed and somebody is doing something, you must speak out. It takes courage to do that. Then you have to come out of yourself to do that."
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"What I find really astonishing is how quiet everybody is in my industry. I mean, nobody in the entertainment business except for maybe a handful of people ever speak out about what's going on. Nobody takes a political stance or expresses an opinion."
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"Let the veil of silence fall presently over what happened afterwards. Silence, too, can speak out."
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"Anytime you're the first to speak out against something, there's going to be a backlash."
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"Speak out in acts; the time for words has passed, and only deeds will suffice."
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"Knowing what I do, there would be no future peace for me if I kept silent... It is, in the deepest sense, a privilege as well as a duty to speak out to many thousands of people."
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"There are two kinds of genius. The first and highest may be said to speak out of the eternal to the present, and must compel its age to understand it; the second understands its age, and tells it what it wishes to be told."
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"The least I can do is speak out for the hundreds of chimpanzees who, right now, sit hunched, miserable and without hope, staring out with dead eyes from their metal prisons. They cannot speak for themselves."
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"All my writings may be considered tasks imposed from within, their source was a fateful compulsion. What I wrote were things that assailed me from within myself. I permitted the spirit that moved me to speak out."
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"Martin Luther King wanted to be morally consistent and speak out against various things that were wrong, not just racism."
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