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The hammer of criminal justice is the preferred tool of a society that has run out of ideas.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Justice

More quotes by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Something more awful than all our African ancestors is rising with the seas.

Between the World and Me (2015)

The destroyers will rarely be held accountable. Mostly they will receive pensions.

Between the World and Me (2015)

You actually can’t understand American history without understanding slavery.

Some part of us believes in nonviolence not as an ideal worth striving for, but as a fairy tale passed on to the politically weak.

Racism isn’t just morally wrong, it makes for poor story-telling.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

If the church ... does not make God's liberation of the oppressed central in its mission and proclamation, how can it rest easy with a condemned criminal as the dominant symbol of its message?

James H. Cone Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986)

It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make a mistake in punishing.

Muhammad

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ta-Nehisi Coates (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.