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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I owe much; I have nothing; the rest I leave to the poor.

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When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. ― Dom Helder Camara

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You've got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it. - Cornel West

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A black agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, quality education, investment in infrastructure and strong democratic regulation of corporations. The black agenda, at its best, looks at America from the vantage point of the least of these and asks what's best for all. - Cornel West

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I'm against genocide. I'm against fascism. I'm willing to fight against them so that, in that sense, I think one can still be committed to justice and committed to peace but recognize the circumstances under which one does have to fight. - Cornel West

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A snooze button is a poor substitute for no alarm clock at all.

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Black people have been working hard for decades. - 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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So long as I can laugh, never will I be poor.

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