Quote

People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.

Bayard Rustin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Bayard Rustin
Age: 74 †
Born: 1912
Born: January 1
Died: 1987
Died: January 1
Activist
Civil Rights Advocate
Lgbtiq+ Rights Activist
Politician
Trade Unionist
Westchester
Pennsylvania
Freedom
Given
Never
People
Prepared
Evidence
Fight
Fighting

More quotes by Bayard Rustin

Image
To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.
Bayard Rustin
Image
I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality.
Bayard Rustin
Image
If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it will, thereby, have the power to turn on me.
Bayard Rustin
Image
We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.
Bayard Rustin
Image
The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision. . .
Bayard Rustin
Image
Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: ‘The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics 2) constitutional means 3) democratic procedures 4) respect for human personality 5) a belief that all people are one.’
Bayard Rustin
Image
Gays are beginning to realize what blacks learned long ago: Unless you are out here fighting for yourself then nobody else will help you. I think the gay community has a moral obligation to continue the fight.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.
Bayard Rustin
Image
If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian.
Bayard Rustin
Image
The proof that one truly believes is in action.
Bayard Rustin
Image
The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don't turn
Bayard Rustin
Image
The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel's existence.
Bayard Rustin
Image
I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Surely, I must at all times attempt to obey the law of the state. But when the will of God and the will of the state conflict, I am compelled to follow the will of God.
Bayard Rustin
Image
Bigotrys birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.
Bayard Rustin
Image
When you're wrong, you're wrong. But when you're right, you're wrong anyhow.
Bayard Rustin