Thurgood Marshall Quotes & Sayings

“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.”

“A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly 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.”

“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.”

“In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.”

“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.”

“What is the quality of your intent?”

“Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.”

“I have a lifetime appointment and I intend to serve it. I expect to die at 110, shot by a jealous husband.”

“Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.”

“Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds.”