The Truths We Hold Quotes

“A patriot is not someone who condones the conduct of our country whatever it does. It is someone who fights every day for the ideals of the country, whatever it takes.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. . . . We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“For as long as ours has been a nation of immigrants, we have been a nation that fears immigrants. Fear of the other is woven into the fabric of our American culture, and unscrupulous people in power have exploited that fear in pursuit of political advantage.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“My daily challenge to myself is to be part of the solution, to be a joyful warrior in the battle to come. My challenge to you is to join that effort. To stand up for our ideals and our values. Let's not throw up our hands when it's time to roll up our sleeves. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not ever.

Years from now, our children and our grandchildren will look up and lock eyes with us. They will ask us where we were when the stakes were so high. They will ask us what it was like. I don't want us to just tell them how we felt. I want us to tell them what we did.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“In the years to come, what matters most is that we see ourselves in one another's struggles. p 120”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“But when you can’t sleep at night, how can you dream?”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“When you break through a glass ceiling, you're going to get cut, and it's going to hurt.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“For too long, we’d been told there were only two options: to be either tough on crime or soft on crime—an oversimplification that ignored the realities of public safety. You can want the police to stop crime in your neighborhood and also want them to stop using excessive force. You can want them to hunt down a killer on your streets and also want them to stop using racial profiling. You can believe in the need for consequence and accountability, especially for serious criminals, and also oppose unjust incarceration. I believed it was essential to weave all these varied strands together.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Like it or not, most people prioritize their own safety over the education of someone else’s child. I wanted to make them see that if we didn’t prioritize education now, it would be a public safety matter later.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“The job of an elected official is not to sing a lullaby and soothe the country into a sense of complacency. The job is to speak truth, even in a moment that does not welcome or invite its utterance.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“As I sat alone in my new office, I recalled a time, as a young prosecutor, when I overheard some of my colleagues in the hallway. “Should we add the gang enhancement?” one of them asked. “Can we show he was in a gang?” the other said. “Come on, you saw what he was wearing, you saw which corner they picked him up on. Guy’s got the tape of that rapper, what’s his name?” I stepped out into the hallway. “Hey, guys, just so you know: I have family that live in that neighborhood. I’ve got friends who dress in that style. And I’ve got a tape of that rapper in my car right now.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“It is often the mastery of the seemingly unimportant details, the careful execution of the tedious tasks, and the dedicated work done outside of the public eye that make the changes we seek possible.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Black men use drugs at the same rate as white men, but they are arrested twice as often for it. And then they pay more than a third more than their counterparts, on average, in bail. Black men are six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated. And when they are convicted, black men get sentences nearly 20 percent longer than those given to their white counterparts. Latino men don’t fare much better. It is truly appalling.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“The criminal justice system punishes people for their poverty.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Drawing on the words of Coretta Scott King, I reminded the audience that freedom must be fought for and won by every generation. "It is the very nature of this fight for civil rights and justice and equality that whatever gains we make, they will not be permanent. So we must be vigilant, " I said.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“One of my mother’s favorite sayings was “Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Don’t let anybody tell you who you are. You tell them who you are.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“I had divided my to-do list into three categories: short-, medium-, and long-term. Short-term meant “a couple of weeks,” medium-term meant “a couple of years,” and long-term meant “as long as it takes.” It was that far side of the ledger where I wrote down the most intractable problems we were facing—the ones you can’t expect to solve on your own, over a term, perhaps even over a career. That’s where the most important work is. That’s where you take the bigger view—not of the political moment but of the historical one.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Implicit bias lives in split seconds. It is the unconscious shorthand that our brains use to help us make a quick judgment about a stranger.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“And if we are lucky enough to be in a position of power, if our voice and our actions can mobilize change, don't we have a special obligation? Being an ally can't just be about nodding when someone says something we agree with - important as that is. It must also be about action. It's our job to stand up for those who are not at the table when life-altering decisions are made. Not just those people who look like us. Not just those who need what we need. Not just those who have gained an audience with us. Our duty is to improve the human condition - in every way we can, for everyone who needs it.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“You have to sweat the small stuff, because sometimes it turns out the small stuff is actually the big stuff.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“You don’t add the intractable problems to the list because they are new, but because they are big, because people have been fighting against them for dozens—maybe even hundreds—of years, and that duty is now yours. What matters is how well you run the portion of the race that is yours.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“fact, if DACA recipients were deported, it is estimated that the U.S. economy as a whole could lose as much as $460 billion over a decade.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“When you show people the math, you give them the tools to decide whether they agree with the solution. And even if they don’t agree with everything, they may find that they agree with you most of the way—a kind of policy-making “partial credit” that can form the basis for constructive collaboration.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“God, a God who asked us to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” and to “defend the rights of the poor and needy.” This is where I learned that “faith” is”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“. . . Being a good person meant standing for something larger than yourself; that success is measured in part by what you help others achieve and accomplish.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“We have to act with fierce urgency. Justice demands it.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Local officials don’t have the ability to make national policy. They have no authority beyond their jurisdiction. But when they land on good ideas, even on a small scale, they can create examples that others can replicate.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Imagine if U.S. health care coverage was based not on how much you can pay but instead on your health needs. The purpose of the system would be to maximize good health care outcomes rather than maximizing profits. That, in itself, would be revolutionary. Getting sick would no longer mean risking bankruptcy. Employers would no longer have to spend so much to provide health insurance to their employees. And the system itself would run far more efficiently, as we see when we compare the high administrative costs of private health insurance companies with the lower costs of Medicare.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey

“Engaging in the fight for civil rights and social justice is not for the faint of heart. It is as difficult as it is important, and the wins may never taste as sweet as the losses taste sour. But count yourself as part of the lineage of those who refused to relent. And when we’re feeling frustrated and discouraged by the obstacles in front of us, let’s channel the words of Constance Baker Motley, one of my inspirations as the first black American woman appointed to the federal judiciary. “Lack of encouragement never deterred me,” she wrote. “In fact, I think the effect was just the opposite. I was the kind of person who would not be put down.”
― Kamala Harris, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey