Kamala Quotes & Sayings

To change criminal justice policy in any meaningful way means to propose changing a very longstanding system. It's not realistic to think you can do it overnight. — Kamala Harris

Well, and what if we give in to our troubles at every step! We would be pitiable creatures indeed to be so weak, for is not a man's spirit given to him to rise above his misfortunes? As for our wants, they are many and unfilled, for who is so rich or compassionate as to supply them? Want is our companion from birth to death, familiar as the seasons or the earth, varying only in degree. What profit to bewail that which has always been and cannot change? — Kamala Markandaya

It is I who drink lonely
Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,
It is I who laugh, it is I who make love
And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying
With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,
I am saint. I am the beloved and the
Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no
Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I. — Kamala Suraiyya Das

My mother had a saying: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you're not the last.' — Kamala Harris

Kamala: You're WOLVERINE! My Wolverine-and-Storm-in-space fanfic was the third-most upvoted story on Freaking Awesome last month!
Logan: Oh my God.
Kamala: I had you guys fighting this giant alien blob that farts wormholes!
Logan: Sounds great, kid.
[pause]
Logan: Wait
so what was the MOST upvoted story?
Kamala: Umm ... Cyclops and Emma Frost's romantic vacation in Paris?
Logan: This is the worst day of my life. — G. Willow Wilson

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything. — Kamala Harris

Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand. — Kamala Markandaya

You don't have to care about children to care about children. One of the things that I talk a lot about is the fact of the importance of third-grade reading level. By the end of third grade, if the child is not at reading level, it'll drop off. They never catch up. — Kamala Harris

A book is a good substitute for a man. Fiction, preferably — Kamala Suraiyya Das

Everyone's perspective of themselves and others is based on the limitations of their exposure. — Kamala Harris

I could do all of my activities at Howard because it was an environment that had essentially rid the ideology of false choices that I feel absolutely constricts young black students. — Kamala Harris

To be smart on crime, we should not be in a position of constantly reacting to crime after it happens. We should be looking at preventing crime before it happens. — Kamala Harris

Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class. — Kamala Harris

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time - the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it. — Kamala Harris

My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice. — Kamala Harris

Nature is like a wild animal that you have trained to work for you. So long as you are vigilant and walk warily with thought and care, so long will it give you its aid, but look away for an instant, be heedless or forgetful, and it has you by the throat. — Kamala Markandaya

I'm a career prosecutor. I have been trained, and my experience over decades, is to make decisions after a review of the evidence and the facts. And not to jump up with grand gestures before I've done that. Some might interpret that as being cautious. I would tell you that's just responsible. — Kamala Harris

Every day there are homeowners in California who will either receive relief so they can stay in their home, or will be in the foreclosure process and potentially lose their home. And that always weighed heavily on my mind. — Kamala Harris

For where shall a man turn who has no money? Where can he go? Wide, wide world, but as narrow as the coins in your hand. Like a tethered goat, so far and no farther. Only money can make the rope stretch, only money. — Kamala Markandaya

You are like me, you are different from most people. You are Kamala, nothing else, and inside of you, there is a peace and refuge, to which you can go at every hour of the day and be at home at yourself, as I can also do. Few people have this, and yet all could have it. — Hermann Hesse

I have a difficult time sitting down for long periods. — Kamala Harris

People who work for me know that family comes first. And I'm fortunate to have a family that is very supportive of the work I do, so I don't have to live two separate lives. — Kamala Harris

I want to use my position of leadership to help move along at a faster pace what I believe and know the Obama administration wants to do around the urgency of climate change. — Kamala Harris

In California, we have some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. While it is easy to conceive of innovation and regulation as mutually exclusive, California is proof that we can do both. We can innovate responsibly. — Kamala Harris

When you expand your ability to see, you understand that there are a lot of false choices being offered. — Kamala Harris

Cooking was a talent of her mother's that Amina often thought of as an evolutionary way for Kamala to survive herself with friendships intact. Like plumage that expanded to rainbow an otherwise unremarkable bird, Kamala's ability to transform raw ingredients into sumptuous meals brought her the kind of love her personality on its own might have repelled. — Mira Jacob

Let's not build the policy around the abuse. That's not good policy. That's actually bad policy. Build the policy around the aspiration point. That's what we need to do when we're seeing abuse online. — Kamala Harris

Generally speaking, the public appetite for criminal justice policy is just tough talk. — Kamala Harris

I believe that a child going without an education is a crime. — Kamala Harris

The 'Ms. Marvel' mantle has passed to 'Kamala Khan,' a high school student from Jersey City who struggles to reconcile being an American teenager with the conservative customs of her Pakistani Muslim family. — G. Willow Wilson

Sometimes at night I think that my husband is with me again, coming gently through the mists, and we are tranquil together. Then the morning comes, the wavering grey turns to gold, there is stirring within me as the sleepers awake, and he softly departs. — Kamala Markandaya

I always start my campaigns early, and I run hard. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it's not even a contact sport - it's a blood sport. This is how I am as a candidate. This is how I run campaigns. — Kamala Harris

We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California. — Kamala Harris

It's too late for any of us. But you youngsters, you still have hope. Go and explore. Don't be afraid to search for the truth. There is nothing to fear. — Kamala Nair

The American dream belongs to all of us. — Kamala Harris

Troubled, yet also with laughter, he recalled that time. He remembered that at that time he had boasted of three things to Kamala, three noble and invincible arts: fasting, waiting and thinking. — Hermann Hesse

Once he said to her: 'You are like me; you are different from other people. You are Kamala and no one else, and within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat any time and be yourself, just as I can. Few people have that capacity and yet everyone could have it. — Hermann Hesse

Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime. — Kamala Harris

What's important for my daughter to know is that ... if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well. — Kamala Harris

I've had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work. — Kamala Harris

In every work environment, there will be politics. If you really want to rise to the top, you need to figure out what those politics in your workplace are. Then, you hook it in. You decide what conforms and what does not conform to your personal code. — Kamala Harris

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don't know who is calling that child. — Kamala Harris

Don't pretend that you can just be oblivious to politics. You can't. What you never do is break your personal code. Have a code and keep it. You should never compromise what your priorities are. — Kamala Harris

Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It's a marathon. — Kamala Harris

We're talking about in the Proposition 8 case fundamental rights, civil rights. I offer no apology for the position I took in Prop. 8. — Kamala Harris

It is nice to be nice," said Kamala with a sage nod. "And it is also nice to eat people. — Roshani Chokshi

I convened the first-ever national training conference for prosecutors on how to promote and deal with hate crime issues in terms of prosecutions and also protocol for defeating the gay panic defense. — Kamala Harris

We don't have to guess what Mitt Romney would have done if he were president. Because he told us. He said we should let foreclosures - and I quote - 'hit the bottom' so the market could - I quote - 'run its course.' — Kamala Harris

What we know is smartphones are everywhere and they are rich in data. What we know is that there are apps once downloaded by the consumer that will also in turn download the consumers' contact book. Most consumers don't want that to happen and don't know it's happening. — Kamala Harris

My parents met when they were graduate students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. They were both active in the civil-rights movement. — Kamala Harris

Like other women writers of my class, I am expected to tame my talent to suit the comfort of my family. — Kamala Suraiyya Das

I believe you've got to do your due diligence. — Kamala Harris

I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.' — Kamala Harris

Kamala did not try to find him. She was not surprised when she learned that Siddhartha had disappeared. — Hermann Hesse

The strident chimes of prayer bells from the distant temple resonated in the night air with ritual insistence, and nudged Kamala from her repose. What had once sounded to her like a sharp and persistent call to prayer now, with ceaseless repetition, mellowed to become plaintive and wistful, like one's favourite recording playing in the background to the syncopated percussion of lovemaking. (From the novel Blood & Nemesis by Ben Antao). — Ben Antao

I am a prosecutor in my bones. When I see something, I immediately go to: how is this going to affect a child? — Kamala Harris

What we all want is public safety. We don't want rhetoric that's framed through ideology. — Kamala Harris

I swear to Vishnu, if this doesn't work, I'm going to stab you in the throat with a Pipette. — Kyoko M.

With the advent of DNA, we know that people have been convicted and sentenced to death who later proved not to be guilty of the crime. — Kamala Harris

Today at Nariman Point the tall buildings crowd one another. But when I was young and in love with a grey-eyed man it was a marshy waste. We used to walk aimlessly along the quiet Panday Road or cross the Cuffe Parade to walk towards the sun. We did not have a place to rest. But in the glow of those evening suns, we felt that we were Gods who had lost their way and had strayed into an unkind planet.. — Kamala Suraiyya Das

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us. — Kamala Harris

In order to find balance, I feel very strongly about two things in particular in terms of routine. Work out, and eat well. — Kamala Harris

To those who live by the land there must always come times of hardship, of fear and of hunger, even as there are years of plenty. This is one of the truths of our existence as those who live by the land know: that sometimes we eat and sometimes we starve. We live by our labours fromone harvest to the next, there is no certain telling whether we shall be able to feed ourselves and our children, and if bad times are prolonged we know we must see the weak surrender their lives and this fact, too, is within our experience. In our lives there is no margin for misfortune. — Kamala Markandaya

We don't want to promote any system that treats the fact that an individual is LGBT as a personality disorder. And anything that perpetuates that perception is harmful - not only to that member of the community but the entire community. — Kamala Harris

The best motivation is love," I offered. Beside me, Kamala nodded vigorously. "And food! — Roshani Chokshi

'Getting smart on crime' does not mean reducing sentences or punishments for crimes. — Kamala Harris

I think I have every piece of music Bob Marley ever made. — Kamala Harris

The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it's a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people. — Kamala Harris

So many people trip in front of them because they're looking over there or up ahead. — Kamala Harris

I strongly believe that for serious and violent criminals, we must absolutely hold them accountable for their crimes and send them to prison. — Kamala Harris

I'm one of the luckiest people on earth. — Kamala Harris

Eighty-two percent of prisoners in the United States are high-school dropouts. A high-school dropout between the ages of 30 and 34 is two-thirds more likely to be in jail, or to have been in jail, or to be dead. — Kamala Harris

I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother's kitchen. If I don't have time to cook, I'll just read a cookbook. — Kamala Harris

At sunset, on the river ban, Krishna
Loved her for the last time and left ...
That night in her husband's arms, Radha felt
So dead that he asked, What is wrong,
Do you mind my kisses, love? And she said,
Not not at all, but thought, What is
It to the corpse if the maggots nip? — Kamala Suraiyya Das

You didn't ever love him, but you were sentimental about him — Kamala Suraiyya Das

I'll be judged on the body of work and not the popularity of any one decision. — Kamala Harris

I love being in a courtroom. — Kamala Harris

Everyone can perform magic; everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, to wait, and to fast." Kamala — Hermann Hesse

Women should not allow themselves to be caught up in the hype that says performance, meaning the motions, is what matters. — Kamala Harris

You got to take care of yourself. If I exercise or I eat proper foods, am I indulging myself? That's called feeding your body. — Kamala Harris

You were willing. See here, Kamala: When you throw a stone into water, it falls quickly by the fastest route to the bottom of the pond. This is the way it is when Siddhartha has an aim, an intention. Siddhartha does nothing - he waits, he thinks, he fasts - but he passes through the things of the world like the stone through the water, without bestirring himself. He is drawn forward and he lets himself fall. His goal draws him to it, for he lets nothing enter his mind that interferes with the goal. This is what Siddhartha learned from the shramanas. This is what fools call magic, thinking that it is brought about by demons. Nothing is brought about by demons; demons do not exist. Anyone can do magic, anyone can reach his goals if he can think, wait, and fast. — Hermann Hesse

I work out every morning. Only half an hour. I get on the treadmill. That's it. Every morning, I don't care what time. It gets your blood flowing. It gets your adrenaline flowing. I believe in eating well. It's not fanatical. Eat good food. Make sure you've got good vegetables. — Kamala Harris

Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf, which is blown and is turning around through the air, and wavers, and tumbles to the ground. But others, a few, are like stars, they go on a fixed course, no wind reaches them, in themselves they have their law and their course — Hermann Hesse

You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them. — Kamala Harris

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero. — Kamala Harris

If wrappings of cloth can impart respectability, the most respectable persons are the Egyptian mummies, all wrapped in layers and layers of gauze — Kamala Suraiyya Das

Who am I? It seems like an easy question. And then I realize.. Maybe what I said to those cops wasn't a joke. Maybe the name belongs to whoever has the courage to fight.
And so I tell them.
I tell them who I am
You can call me Ms. Marvel. And if you cooperate, I won't throw you again. — G. Willow Wilson

Hope, and fear. Twin forces that tugged at us first in one direction and then in another, and which was the stronger no one could say. Of the latter we never spoke, but it was always with us. Fear, constant companion of the peasant. Hunger, ever at hand to jog his elbow should he relax. Despair, ready to engulf him should he falter. Fear; fear of the dark future; fear of the sharpness of hunger; fear of the blackness of death. — Kamala Markandaya

You must cry out if you want help. It is no use whatsoever to suffer in silence. Who will succour the drowning man if he does not clamour for his life? — Kamala Markandaya

He's fine," Kamala said. "It's not like that. You're not listening." "I am listening! You just told me he's delusional, and I'm asking - " "I DID NOT SAY HE IS DELUSIONAL. I SAID HE WAS TALKING TO HIS MOTHER." "Who is dead," Amina said gently. "Obvious." "And that's not delusional? — Mira Jacob

I think Hillary Clinton could do whatever she puts her mind to. I really do. She's incredibly dedicated to public service, she is smart as a whip, and she's effective. — Kamala Harris