In order to realize our true self we must be willing to live without being dependent upon the opinion of others.

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When you teach black people that they are less beautiful, less moral, less intelligent, and as a result you defer to the white supremacist status quo, you rationalize your accommodation to the status quo, you lose your fire, you become much more tied to producing foliage, what appears to be the case. - Cornel West

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Part of the popularity with Louis Farrakhan has less to do with the content of his message and more to do with the form that he portrays himself - as being a free black person who speaks what is on his mind with boldness and fearlessness. Who is willing to pay the consequences. - Cornel West

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Don’t let the voice of other people’s opinion drown your inner voice.

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Black prophetic fire is the hypersensitivity to the suffering of others that generates a righteous indignation that results in the willingness to live and die for freedom. - Cornel West

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Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. ― Bertrand Russell

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If you view life as a gold rush, you're going to end up worshiping a golden calf. And when you call for help, and that golden calf can't respond, you go under. - Cornel West

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Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so forth. - Cornel West

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Love and trust and justice, concern for the poor, that's being pushed to the margins, and you can see it. - Cornel West

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I know what I can do so it doesn't bother me what other people think or their opinion on the situation.

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