I'm sure you are enjoying reading quotes from My Grandfather's Son. Listed below are the last four chapters (7-10). Please use the link from Part 1 if you would like to order this book.
One reporter told me that good news about civil rights simply wasn't "newsworthy" during the Reagan years. p. 162
[a prayer Thomas keeps in his wallet attributed to St. Francis of Assisi] "Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Do not let worldly cares and anxieties or the pressures of office blot out the divine life within you or the voice of God's spirit guiding you in your great task of leading humanity to wholeness. If you open yourself to God and His plan printed in your heart, God will open Himself to you." p. 181
[Senator Danforth talking to Thomas before the going to the Caucus room to face the Judiciary Committee] "You'll probably think I'm strange to ask you to do this," he said kiddingly, but by then I wasn't able to see the humor in much of anything. As soon as the four [both men and the wives]of us had crowded into the bathroom, he pulled out a portable tape recorder and played us a recording of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The look on his face told me that this was no joke. Virginia [Thomas's wife] and I listened intently to the hymn's long-familiar words: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, / With the cross of Jesus going on before. / Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; / Forward into battle see His banners go! Then Senator Danforth prayed that the day would go well, told me to go forth in the name Christ, and implored me to let the Holy Ghost speak through me. p. 233
Psalm 57 showed me the way:
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed...
I am in the midst of lions;
I lie among ravenous beasts-
men whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
They spread a net for my feet-
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit in my path-
but they have fallen into it themselves. p. 237
[The oath Thomas takes to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court] "Then repeat after me: I, Clarence Thomas, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to person, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all of the duties incumbent upon me as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God." p. 287
Wow, what an enjoyable book to read!
UGA
Showing posts with label Clarence Thomas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clarence Thomas. Show all posts
Saturday, March 1, 2008
My Grandfather's Son Part 2
I have finished Clarence Thomas' book, My Grandfather's Son. If you enjoy biographies and/or political books then this is one should should buy. I have a link on Part 1 to purchase this book. Listed below are some quotes from chapter 4-6.
... real freedom meant independence from government intrusion, which in turn meant that you had to take responsibility for your own decisions. When the government assumes that responsibility, it takes away your freedom - and wasn't freedom the very thing for which blacks in America were fighting? p. 73
... I swore on the spot never to let Jamal [Thomas's son] go to a public school, even if I had to starve to pay his tuition. I had no intention of allowing my son to become a guinea pig in some harebrained social experiment. p. 79
... it turned out that blacks were responsible for almost 80 percent of violent crimes committed against blacks, and killed over 90 percent of black murder victims. This was a bitter pill to swallow. Until then I'd ignored the obvious implications of black-on-black crime rates. After I worked on that case, I knew better than to assume that whites were responsible for all the woes of blacks, and stopped throwing around the word "oppression" so carelessly. I also grew more wary of unsupported generalizations and conspiracy theories, both of which had become indispensable features of radical argument. p. 95
They understood what mattered: family, home, church, friends. p. 99
... honesty is what you do when no one is looking. p.101
... my needs, however great they might be, didn't convert wrong to right or bad to good. p. 101
Thomas Sowell in Race and Economics wrote: " Perhaps the greatest dilemma in the attempts to raise ethnic minority income is that those methods which historically proved successful - self-reliance, work skills, education, business experience - are all slow developing, while those methods which are more direct and immediate - job quotas, charity, subsidies, preferential treatment - tend to undermine self-reliance and pride of achievement in the long run. If the history of American ethnic groups shows anything, it is how large a role has been played by attitudes - and particularly attitudes of self-reliance." pp. 105-106
... blacks could never hope to improve their lives until they took responsibility for them. p. 107
The one good thing about Monsanto was the money, but by then I knew there were more important things in life. p. 113
[Speaking of Jay Parker] I'll never forget the time when he reminded me that freedom came from God, not Ronald Reagan. p. 127
I took as my motto a saying of Bobby Knight, then Indiana University's men's basketball coach: "Everybody has a will to win. What's far more important is having the will to prepare to win." p. 128
... the pain of individual effort is part of the price you pay for achievement. p. 130
[One of the black janitors in the Dirksen Senate Office building told Thomas] "You cannot give what you do not have." p. 136
... real freedom meant independence from government intrusion, which in turn meant that you had to take responsibility for your own decisions. When the government assumes that responsibility, it takes away your freedom - and wasn't freedom the very thing for which blacks in America were fighting? p. 73
... I swore on the spot never to let Jamal [Thomas's son] go to a public school, even if I had to starve to pay his tuition. I had no intention of allowing my son to become a guinea pig in some harebrained social experiment. p. 79
... it turned out that blacks were responsible for almost 80 percent of violent crimes committed against blacks, and killed over 90 percent of black murder victims. This was a bitter pill to swallow. Until then I'd ignored the obvious implications of black-on-black crime rates. After I worked on that case, I knew better than to assume that whites were responsible for all the woes of blacks, and stopped throwing around the word "oppression" so carelessly. I also grew more wary of unsupported generalizations and conspiracy theories, both of which had become indispensable features of radical argument. p. 95
They understood what mattered: family, home, church, friends. p. 99
... honesty is what you do when no one is looking. p.101
... my needs, however great they might be, didn't convert wrong to right or bad to good. p. 101
Thomas Sowell in Race and Economics wrote: " Perhaps the greatest dilemma in the attempts to raise ethnic minority income is that those methods which historically proved successful - self-reliance, work skills, education, business experience - are all slow developing, while those methods which are more direct and immediate - job quotas, charity, subsidies, preferential treatment - tend to undermine self-reliance and pride of achievement in the long run. If the history of American ethnic groups shows anything, it is how large a role has been played by attitudes - and particularly attitudes of self-reliance." pp. 105-106
... blacks could never hope to improve their lives until they took responsibility for them. p. 107
The one good thing about Monsanto was the money, but by then I knew there were more important things in life. p. 113
[Speaking of Jay Parker] I'll never forget the time when he reminded me that freedom came from God, not Ronald Reagan. p. 127
I took as my motto a saying of Bobby Knight, then Indiana University's men's basketball coach: "Everybody has a will to win. What's far more important is having the will to prepare to win." p. 128
... the pain of individual effort is part of the price you pay for achievement. p. 130
[One of the black janitors in the Dirksen Senate Office building told Thomas] "You cannot give what you do not have." p. 136
Saturday, February 23, 2008
My Grandfather's Son Part 1
I just started reading Clarence Thomas' book, My Grandfather's Son. I have enjoyed the first three chapters and wanted to leave you with a few quotes:
... we missed school only once in all the years I lived on East Thirty-second Street. That was not Daddy's fault: he warned us that if we died, he'd take our bodies to school for three days to make sure we weren't faking, and we figured he meant it. He also told us that our teachers, like Aunt Tina, were always right. Even when they weren't, it did no good to complain to him. Doing so was sure to get us in worse trouble. p. 15
Long after the fact, it occurred to me that this was a metaphor for life-blisters come before calluses, vulnerability before maturity-... p. 25
... the only hope I had of changing the world was to change myself first. p. 60
How could a black man be truly free if he felt obliged to act in a certain way-and how was that any different from being forced to live under segregation? How could blacks hope to solve their problems if they weren't willing to tell the truth about what they thought, no matter how unpopular it might be? p. 63
Please remember he calls his grandfather, Daddy.
To order this book click here!
... we missed school only once in all the years I lived on East Thirty-second Street. That was not Daddy's fault: he warned us that if we died, he'd take our bodies to school for three days to make sure we weren't faking, and we figured he meant it. He also told us that our teachers, like Aunt Tina, were always right. Even when they weren't, it did no good to complain to him. Doing so was sure to get us in worse trouble. p. 15
Long after the fact, it occurred to me that this was a metaphor for life-blisters come before calluses, vulnerability before maturity-... p. 25
... the only hope I had of changing the world was to change myself first. p. 60
How could a black man be truly free if he felt obliged to act in a certain way-and how was that any different from being forced to live under segregation? How could blacks hope to solve their problems if they weren't willing to tell the truth about what they thought, no matter how unpopular it might be? p. 63
Please remember he calls his grandfather, Daddy.
To order this book click here!
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