William Raspberry Quotes & Sayings

If I could offer a single prescription for the survival of America, and particularly black America, it would be to restore the family. And if you asked me how to do it, my answer - doubtlessly oversimplified - would be; save the boys. — William Raspberry

People who believe a problem can be solved tend to get busy solving it. — William Raspberry

And, yes, words matter. They may reflect reality, but they also have the power to change reality - the power to uplift and to abase. — William Raspberry

It is a mistake to suppose that requiring the nonmathematical to take more advanced math courses will enhance their understanding and not merely exacerbate their sense of inadequacy. — William Raspberry

Fifty years after Brown, we should have learned that there is no magic in white classmates. The magic lies at the intersection of educational opportunity and attitude - the coming together of teachers who know how to teach and children who are ready to learn. No one thing - not the ballot, not changes in school governance, not desegregation - will produce that happy confluence. We have to demand that the schools get ready for our children. But we also have to make sure, using every resource at our disposal, that our children are ready for school. — William Raspberry

Our growing ability to eliminate the slow-moving aspects of entertainment and go hopping from one peak to another is not without cost. Stand-up comics, movie-makers and others who earn their living entertaining no longer "waste" time with setups and plot development, lest we reach for the remote and click them off our screen. The result is a loss of subtlety, anticipation and nuance and, in the process, a coarsening of our discourse. — William Raspberry

Scandal has a thousand stringers; good news doesn't know the editor's phone number. — William Raspberry

Good English, well spoken and well written will open more doors than a college degree ... Bad English will slam doors you don't even know exist. — William Raspberry

Your best shot at happiness, self-worth and personal satisfaction - the things that constitute real success - is not in earning as much as you can but in performing as well as you can something that you consider worthwhile. — William Raspberry

It's always illegitimate for white men to organize as white men. — William Raspberry