Wes Moore Quotes & Sayings

When it comes time 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 ever here. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

Adrien Bach, main character from The Maker:
You know, when you're a kid, you think you're going to grow up to be something special, do something important. You're not going to be a regular Joe like everybody else. But then you get out there and life starts to hit you. It hits you so many times, eventually you just can't get up anymore. Or won't.
And then you just don't know. Those dreams seem to fade away, and suddenly you're not sure who you are anymore. — Wes Moore

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

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

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. — Wes Moore

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

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. — Wes Moore

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

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and it's the rare person who can walk away from what feels like a sure thing. — Wes Moore

Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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? — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

The importance of education plays a huge role. — Wes Moore

-After all this pain and heartache, how are you now able to forgive? You seem so at peace with yourself and your life. How are you so able to move on? ...
-Because Mr. Mandela asked us to. — Wes Moore

The importance of high expectations plays a big role. — Wes Moore

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

From the pastor who has an affair with his secretary, to the jerk at the office who happens to be a deacon, to the overbearing boss who can't miss his Monday night Bible study, Christians today cause more problems for the gospel than all the devil's demons put together. — Wes Moore

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

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

I'm not a warmonger - like many who have worn the uniform, I am particularly averse to war. I'm also not someone who believes in empire building or imperialistic or paternalistic attitudes about the world outside of America. But our passion, influence, and responsibility as humans can never end at our borders. — Wes Moore

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

As my sister used to eloquently put it, our mother wore sweaters so we could wear coats. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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

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

But really, where leadership is born and where leadership is really bred is ... — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

I found myself surrounded by people
starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a string of wonderful role models and mentors
who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself. People who taught me that no accident of birth
not being black or relatively poor, being from Baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless
would ever define or limit me. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

People who taught me that no accident of birth--not being black or relatively poor, being from Baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless--would ever define or limit me. In other words, they helped me to discover what it means to be free...My only wish--and I know Wes feels the same--is that the boys (and girls) who come after us will know this freedom. It's up to us, all of us, to make a way for them. — Wes Moore

Kids need to think that you care before they care what you think. — Wes Moore

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

I was taught to remember, but never question. Wes was taught to forget, and never ask why. We learned our lessons well and were showing them off to a tee. We sat there, just a few feet from each other, both silent, pondering an absence. — Wes Moore

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

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

The young men in our city are not problems to be solved. They are opportunities to be unleashed. — Wes Moore

Potential is universal. Opportunity is not. — Wes Moore

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

My Father's Day Gift will have you remembering those in your life who saw something in you before you saw it in yourself. — Wes Moore

I began at some point to understand the whole idea of accountability and responsibility and leadership, and I think that was something that really birthed something in me, where I knew I wanted to be part of a larger equation in our society. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

I hear you, but it's not the process you should focus on; it's the joy you will feel after you go through the process. - Zinzi (pg170)The Other Wes Moore — Wes Moore

My father had been my Moses, bringing me to life. Then my grandfather became my Joshua, carrying me through my childhood and teen years into adulthood. — Wes Moore

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. — Wes Moore

I gave him my full American pitch: about how America was a large experiment, and with every generation we struggle to expand and live up to our greatest ideals, to be greater in the future than we were in the past. I told him I fought for my country because I love it, flaws and all. I fought for it because the people who make up our beautiful, diverse tapestry deserve to be fought for. I fought for it so that this experiment can continue, so that we have a chance to become the country that my grandparents dreamed of and that my grandchildren deserve. — Wes Moore

I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I responded, I guess it's hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances. — Wes Moore

They hit you with a knife, you find a gun — Wes Moore