Quotes by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?

Worst

Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.

Done

Worst

Worst Things

Embracing a certain quotient of racial bias and discrimination against the poor is an inexorable aspect of supporting capital punishment. This is an immoral condition that makes rejecting the death penalty on moral grounds not only defensible but necessary for those who refuse to accept unequal or unjust administration of punishment.

Administration

Punishment

Unjust

I do talk and think a lot about the legacy before me. I feel like if I didn’t know that people had been in Montgomery sixty years ago trying to do similar things that I’m trying to do, with a lot less, with fewer resources, with less security, with less encouragement, with less opportunity – if I didn’t know that, then I think doing what I do would be much, much harder.

Encouragement

Opportunity

Thinking

I have to get comfortable with resistance, and even sometimes with hostility.

Comfortable

Resistance

Sometimes

I say this thing about how I’ve never had to say my head is bloodied but not bowed, like everybody who came before me had to say. And that tells me that I can do a lot more than I think I can.

Can Do

I Can

Thinking

I talk about my grandmother a lot, because she’s an amazing person – not in some dramatic, distinct, unique way, but anybody who is the daughter of enslaved people and who has found a way to be hopeful and create love and value justice and seek peace is a remarkable person.

Daughter

Grandmother

Unique

I’ve come to understand and to believe that each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. I believe that for every person on the planet. I think if somebody tells a lie, they’re not just a liar. I think if somebody takes something that doesn’t belong to them, they’re not just a thief. I think even if you kill someone, you’re not just a killer. And because of that, there’s this basic human dignity that must be respected by law.

Believe

Liars

Lying

If we want to be proud of our country, if we want to be proud as Americans, if we want to be proud of our history, then we can’t talk about the things that are inconsistent with pride, about which we can have no pride.

Country

Pride

Want

In many ways, we’ve been taught to think that the real question is, do people deserve to die for the crimes they’ve committed? And that’s a very sensible question. But there’s another way of thinking about where we are in our identity. The other way of thinking about it is not, do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit, but do we deserve to kill?

People

Real

Thinking

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Administration

Balls

Believe

Benefits

Broken

Can Do

Capacity

Careers

Challenges

Character

Comfortable

Community

Compassion

Cost

Country

Dark

Daughter

Demand

Differences

Discrimination

Done

Encouragement

Evil

Father

Feet

Grandmother

Heart

Home

Hurt

I Can

Judging

Justice

Kids

Knowing

Legacy

Liars

Life

Lying

Lynching

Needs

Office

Opportunity

People

Police

Poor

Powerful

Pride

Punishment

Race

Real

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

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The Behaviour Diary

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The Dating Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Bryan Stevenson

Bryan Stevenson

Are you the sum total of your worst acts?

Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.

I have to get comfortable with resistance, and even sometimes with hostility.

I say this thing about how I’ve never had to say my head is bloodied but not bowed, like everybody who came before me had to say. And that tells me that I can do a lot more than I think I can.

I talk about my grandmother a lot, because she’s an amazing person – not in some dramatic, distinct, unique way, but anybody who is the daughter of enslaved people and who has found a way to be hopeful and create love and value justice and seek peace is a remarkable person.

If we want to be proud of our country, if we want to be proud as Americans, if we want to be proud of our history, then we can’t talk about the things that are inconsistent with pride, about which we can have no pride.

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Topics by Bryan Stevenson

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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