Thurgood Marshall was a trailblazing figure in American history who rose to prominence as a pioneering civil rights lawyer and became the first African American Supreme Court Justice. Here are the best Thurgood Marshall quotes on law, justice, education, and racism from the man who dedicated his life and career to dismantling racial segregation and fighting for equal rights under the law.
Who Is Thurgood Marshall?
Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991.
He was the first Black justice of the Supreme Court, whose work had a profound impact on the development of equal rights and justice in the United States.
Before his judicial service, he was an attorney, leading the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court.
As a lawyer, Marshall argued many important court cases that changed American Law, including the Court’s landmark 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.
In which, the Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality.
Throughout his career, Marshall worked towards shaping America’s legal landscape and fighting the cause of civil rights. His influence can still be felt as we continue to strive for a more just and equal society.
Marshall’s commitment to justice, equality, and the struggle for civil rights serves as an inspiration for people who look out to challenge injustice and stand for the right.
Delve into the timeless wisdom of Thurgood Marshall quotes to understand why he remains an iconic figure in American history.
Top 10 Thurgood Marshall Quotes
- “Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.” — Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall Quotes - “You do what you think is right and let the law catch up.” — Thurgood Marshall
Quotes By Thurgood Marshall - “Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.” — Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall Famous Quotes - “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.” — Thurgood Marshall
Quotes From Thurgood Marshall - “In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.” — Thurgood Marshall
Justice Thurgood Marshall Quotes - “The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.” — Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall Quotes And Sayings - “Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “A child born to a black mother in a state like Mississippi… has the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.” — Thurgood Marshall
Best Thurgood Marshall Quotes
- “What is the quality of your intent?” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Our Constitution is the envy of the world, as it should be for it is the grand design of the finest nation on earth.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Classifications and distinctions based on race or color have no moral or legal validity in our society. They are contrary to our constitution and laws.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “This is a great country, but fortunately for you, it is not perfect. There is much to be done to bring about complete equality. Remove hunger. Bring reality closer to theory and democratic principles.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. We must dissent from the indifference… from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust.” — Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall Quotes About Law
- “To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Deciding not to decide is, of course, among the most important things done by the Supreme Court. It takes a lot of doing, but it can be done.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment… It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “We deal here with the right of all of our children, whatever their race, to an equal start in life and to an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens. Those children who have been denied that right in the past deserve better than to see fences thrown up to deny them that right in the future.” — Thurgood Marshall
Powerful Quotes By Thurgood Marshall
- “We must dissent from the fear.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Truth is more than a mental exercise.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “What we owe to ourselves and everyone around is to examine the reasons of our true intent.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Surely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Education is not the teaching of the three R’s. Education is the teaching of the overall citizenship, to learn to live together with fellow citizens, and above all to learn to obey the law.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Racism separates, but it never liberates. Hatred generates fear, and fear once given a foothold; binds, consumes and imprisons. Nothing is gained from prejudice. No one benefits from racism.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end; nor is his quest for self-realization concluded.” — Thurgood Marshall
Famous Quotes From Thurgood Marshall
- “What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit – a spirit that demands self-expression.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Those children who have been denied that right in the past deserve better than to see fences thrown up to deny them that right in the future.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “We deal here with the right of all of our children, whatever their race, to an equal start in life and to an equal opportunity to reach their full potential as citizens.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Nothing can be more notorious than the calumnies and invectives with which the wisest measures and most virtuous characters of The United States have been pursued and traduced.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Today’s Constitution is a realistic document of freedom only because of several corrective amendments. Those amendments speak to a sense of decency and fairness that I and other Blacks cherish.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “It is important that the strongest pressures against the continuation of segregation, North or South, be continually and constantly manifested. Probably, as much as anything else, this is the key in the elimination of discrimination in the United States.” — Thurgood Marshall
- To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today.” — Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall Famous Quotes
- “Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can’t ship out.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Deciding not to decide is, of course, among the most important things done by the Supreme Court.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “[It is] a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “We can always stick together when we are losing, but tend to find means of breaking up when we’re winning. In grace under pressure.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “This is a great country, but fortunately for you, it is not perfect. There is much to be done to bring about complete equality. Remove hunger. Bring reality closer to theory and democratic principles.” — Thurgood Marshall
More Thurgood Marshall Quotes
- “It is now well established that the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas. … This right to receive information and ideas, regardless of their social worth, … is fundamental to our free society.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Those who won our independence believed that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. They eschewed silence coerced by law.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same. America’s diversity offers so much richness and opportunity. Take a chance, won’t you? Knockdown the fences, which divide. Tear apart the walls that imprison you. Reach out. Freedom lies just on the other side. We shall have liberty for all.” — Thurgood Marshall
- “What is the quality of your intent? Certain people have a way of saying things that shake us at the core. Even when the words do not seem harsh or offensive, the impact is shattering. What we could be experiencing is the intent behind the words. When we intend to do good, we do. When we intend to do harm, it happens. What each of us must come to realize is that our intent always comes through.” — Thurgood Marshall
Conclusion
Which are your favorite Thurgood Marshall quotes and sayings listed above? Is there a quote that we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments section what your thoughts are.
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