Wes Moore Quotes

Wes didn't think Tony was a hypocrite exactly
he knew why his brother felt obliged to warn him off. But it was clear that Tony didn't have any better ideas or he would've made those moves himself.

When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were even here.

But what all these responses have in common is that they point to the decisive power of information and stories [ ... ]

Poverty is so concentrated because it is generational and, research shows, created with relentless intention.

Just stand next to the white people. They'll get off by Hundred and Tenth Street. Justin broke down his strategy for securing a seat as we shoved ourselves onto the crowded Number 2 train heading uptown.

Some critics will counter that poverty is a choice made by those that are lazy or who lack the desire to change their loves for the better. I agree that poverty is a choice. But that choice is not made by the people who live under its oppressive effects. Rather, the choice is ours. It's the choice of government that represents our priorities and allocates our investments. Its a choice reinforced by the companies we patronize and the organizations we support.

Sophie Bach from The Maker:
You're a human being with a personality and a will, and you make choices and think and create. Is there no meaning to you, Adrien Bach?
And what about us? Is the way we feel about each other just simulated emotions from some biological process - nothing more?

The common bond of humanity and decency that we share is stronger than any conflict, any adversity. Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom. Ubuntu was right.

While reading the (acceptance) letter, I thought about Paul White. Having an advocate on the inside - someone who had gotten to know me on a personal level - had obviously helped. It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the world, and how many kids who didn't have "luck" like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige. So many opportunities in this country are apportioned in this arbitrary and miserly way, distributed to those who already have the benefit of a privileged legacy.

It's easy to lose control when you were never looking for it in the first place

These people hadn't just lost a job; they'd lost an identity. They'd spent countless hours demonstrating loyalty to the business, knowing, of course, that they were only as valuable as their last deal. But this is the trick that a job can sometimes play on us: we know we're working at the pleasure of a manager, an owner, a corporation, but we're human and can't help but develop emotional attachments to the work we do. We begin to identify ourselves with our employers and believe that a business can return our loyalty. Sometimes businesses do. But when it comes down to it, a corporation's first allegiance is to its own survival. Everyone benefits from the idea that we're all in it together - until suddenly we're not.

After my time working for the government as a soldier, I reacquainted myself with the possibilities of government as a force for good beyond its awesome capacity as a force in war and security.

He was telling me that our [country's] blood-soaked and atrocity-littered past was important but that the future didn't have to be its slave.

When we're young, it sometimes seems as if our world doesn't exist outside our city, our block, our house, our room. We make decisions based on what we see in that limited world and follow the only models available.

Life's impermanence, I realized, is what makes every single day so precious. It's what shapes our time here. It's what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted.

The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.

… our fates are profoundly intertwined. We have to take care of one another.

Wes wanted to be just like Tony. Tony wanted Wes to be nothing like him.

The work is not simply about an occupation .. but why you are here.

When our passion for the Great Commission, becomes our search for the Great Politician, we know we're lost.

I learned that the way governors projected the numbers of beds they'd need for prison facilities was by examining the reading scores of third graders. Elected officials deduced that a strong percentage of kids reading below their grade level by third grade would be needing a secure place to stay when they got older.

But really, where leadership is born and where leadership is really bred is ...

I just want to make sure that public service doesn't have to be an occupation, but it needs to be a way of life.

My mother is extraordinary; she's a superwoman, like so many other single mothers who are out there.

One thing I began to realize in my travels was that everyone I met who was truly successful - whether in business, in philanthropic work, in human rights, in government, or in raising a family - shared one common trait: they were fanatically passionate about the work they did.

Abdullah explained to me the man had not understood the significance of the image on the flag, so Abdullah told him it was a picture of Afghanistan - a picture of his country. At that, the man had shrugged and walked away. That's when I started to understand that our goal of establishing loyalty to a national government was possibly in trouble.

In the United States, we see these same faces, and our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street. And in this reflexive gesture, the dimensions of our tragedy are laid bare.

Why would you accept the Jesus of the Bible, if you have rejected the Bible of Jesus?

Service simply means we embrace the possibility of living for more than ourselves.

What is missing in our time is not the willingness of God to
act in biblical ways, but the willingness of his people to believe
he is still the God of the Bible - and to act on that faith. To throw
away fear, to stride against common wisdom, to risk all that we
have and all that we are so we may follow only our simple belief
that the God of the Scriptures is still alive and that he will still
do what he says in his Word.

I just want to do as much as I can while I can, because none of us are promised anything.

Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount.

Do you think that we're products of our environments? I think so, or maybe products of our expectations. Others' expectations of us or our expectations. I mean others' expectations that you take on as your own. I realize how difficult it is to seperate the two. The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves.

We're not products of our environments, we're products of our expectations.

They hit you with a knife, you find a gun

Failing doesn't make us a failure. But not trying to do better, to be better, does make us fools.

The written word isn't necessarily a chore but can be a window into new worlds