For me the prophetic has to do with mustering the courage to love, to empathize, to exercise compassion, and to be committed to justice. Cornel West More Quotes by Cornel West More Quotes From Cornel West Courage is the enabling virtue for any philosopher - for any human being, I think, in the end. Courage to think, courage to love, courage to hope. Cornel West philosopher enabling thinking When you are fundamentally committed to something that is right, you just decide to go down fighting. Period. Cornel West committed fighting periods Part of the problem is we had so far to go, given the deep homophobia in our society. But, the movement is very real. The movement is very real. Cornel West our-society movement real To be great in our times too often means to have great prosperity and no moral magnanimity at all. Cornel West prosperity moral mean For me, music is in no way ornamental or decorative, it's constitutive of who I am. Cornel West music-is who-i-am way I try to, in my own fallible way, speak the truth. Cornel West speak trying way I think, Tom Friedman is right, and I think that we have to - we have to have a serious public dialogue to try to shift public policy in that regard. Cornel West serious trying thinking He who learns death unlearns slavery. Cornel West unlearn slavery thrive All you have is a gift a to give. Cornel West giving It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield. Cornel West fighting soul dark We've been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It's been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes. Cornel West talking war children Martin Luther King Jr's agenda was not to help Negroes overcome American apartheid in the south. It was to make America democracy a better place, where everyday people, from poor people who were white and red and yellow and black and brown, would be able to live lives in decency and dignity. Cornel West live-life kings yellow For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. Cornel West tone musician poet We live in a predatory capitalist society in which everything is for sale. Everybody is for sale, so there is ubiquitous commodification - be it of music, food, people, or parking meters. Cornel West parking-meters capitalist people Part of the challenge of the Barack Obama campaign was to try to neutralize that white backlash, and of course, he was masterful in doing that. Cornel West challenges white trying I'm not a pacifist at all; I think there is a notion of "just war" that can be persuasively argued. I think in the face of Nazis, in the face of apartheid, that I would have joined those armies. But that's the last, last resort. Cornel West army war thinking I think markets are mechanisms that determine prices that are necessary for mass heterogenous populations, and markets do generate levels of technological innovation and productivity that is crucial. But when unregulated, they often generate levels of vast inequality and ugly isolation that makes it difficult for people to relate and connect with one another. Cornel West innovation people thinking The women can always choose the patriarchal models, and you end up with a Margaret Thatcher. Cornel West models ends Frederick Douglas's agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a better democracy. And it's spilt over for women's rights; it's split over for worker's rights and so forth. Cornel West rights america people Martin King was fundamentally committed to the least of these [poor, working people]. Of course, he was a Christian soldier for justice from the 25th chapter of Matthew. Cornel West kings christian people
