Cornel West: I am honored to return back home to Union, to a place wit...

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.

Cornel West

living-a-lie pay lying

You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people.

Cornel West

ifs people

Hope and optimism are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there's enough evidence out there to believe things are gonna be better, much more rational, deeply secular, whereas hope looks at the evidence and says, "It doesn't look good at all. Doesn't look good at all. Gonna go beyond the evidence to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious to allow people to engage in heroic actions always against the odds, no guarantee whatsoever." That's hope. I'm a prisoner of hope, though. Gonna die a prisoner of hope.

Cornel West

odds believe people

The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

Cornel West

patience life country

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public

Cornel West

justice love looks

You have to have a habitual vision of greatness ... you have to believe in fact that you will refuse to settle for mediocrity. You won't confuse your financial security with your personal integrity, you won't confuse your success with your greatness or your prosperity with your magnanimity ... believe in fact that living is connected to giving.

Cornel West

greatness integrity believe

Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.

Cornel West

compassion hope courage

We are who we are because somebody loved us.

Cornel West

who-we-are

The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration.

Cornel West

purpose-driven-life inspirational giving

Too many young folk have addiction to superficial things and not enough conviction for substantial things like justice, truth and love.

Cornel West

superficial-things truth love

It takes tremendous discipline, takes tremendous courage, to think for yourself, to examine yourself.

Cornel West

think-for-yourself discipline thinking

None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109)

Cornel West

commit differences world

You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth

Cornel West

speak suffering want

We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence.

Cornel West

loyalty inspirational relationship

Music is what we need when language fails us, but we cannot remain silent.

Cornel West

jazz music needs

The love of wisdom is a way of life; that is to say, it's a set of practices that have to do with mustering the courage to think critically about ourselves, society, and the world; mustering the courage to empathize; the courage, I would say, to love; the courage to have compassion with others, especially the widow and the orphan, the fatherless and the motherless, poor and working peoples, gays and lesbians, and so forth - and the courage to hope.

Cornel West

gay compassion thinking

We have to be militants for kindness, subversive for sweetness and radicals for tenderness.

Cornel West

sweetness radical kindness

Courage is being true to yourself, true to a sense of integrity.

Cornel West

true-to-yourself be-true-to-yourself integrity

Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse.

Cornel West

ghetto police racism

You've got to love yourself enough, not only so that others will be able to love you, but that you'll be able to love others.

Cornel West

able self-esteem love-you

I am honored to return back home to Union, to a place with brilliant faculty and moral tenacity and that provides an opportunity to continue to work with students who are eager to put their faith into practice while striving for justice and seeking of truth.