Quotes & Sayings About Privilege

I've always considered it a great privilege to be a musician, I've never lost sight of that. — Natalie Merchant

To take care of the world seemed, finally, a privilege rather than a burden. The Riddler had led them to life's greatest victory. They had found a home. — Janet Morris

Things come to the poor that can't get in at the door of the rich. Their money somehow blocks it up. It is a great privilege to be poor
one that no man covets, and brat a very few have sought to retain, but one that yet many have learned to prize. — George MacDonald

To be led by the Holy Spirit and to be totally filled with Him is a privilege reserved for every believer. — Sunday Adelaja

It is surely not unreasonable to think that this extraordinary immunity [to foreign invasions after the tenth century], of which we have shared the privilege with scarcely any people but the Japanese, was one of the fundamental factors of European civilization, in the deepest sense, in the exact sense of the word. — Marc Bloch

There is no birthright in the white skin that it shall say that wherever it goes, to any nation, amongst any people, there the people of the country shall give way before it, and those to whom the land belongs shall bow down and become its servants. — Annie Besant

Startups and small businesses that do not invest at least 10% of their profits into R&D will have the privilege of remaining a startup and/or a small business. — Mark Anthony Peterson

It is those who have the distinction of privilege who set the standards of disgust with failure. — Andy Hargreaves

Miriva refused to believe that human decency should be a privilege given only to a small few, and when she complained to her mother that she did not want to be a broodmare for the sake of alliances between the villages, her mother slapped her and sent her to the fields to pick mehazi beans — Ash Gray

Mr. Gunt, Mr. Neal here is a street survivor. We at the airline are honoring the homeless this year, and it was our airline's privilege and delight to offer him the one remaining business-class seat as a token of our faith in the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. With the full authority of the EU air-system code behind me, I order you back to 67E. — Douglas Coupland

Our relationship with God involves communication - not just an occasional brief chat, but a deep sharing of ourselves and our concerns with God. In the Bible God speaks to us; in prayer we speak to God. Both are essential - and both are gifts God has given us so we can know Him. He has given us the privilege of prayer because He loves us and wants our fellowship. BILLY GRAHAM The Journey — Billy Graham

The military budget is simply an enormous pork barrel of special privilege, the privileges taking the form of windfall profits, of no-risk profits and, most importantly, of enormous outlays of capital supplied by the Pentagon to arms contractors. — Walter Karp

It is a glorious privilege to be attending this, the greatest university in all the world ... take a good look and carefully analyze, and when you take the important points and sum them up, you come out with this final thought: Brigham Young University is the greatest university in the world. — Spencer W. Kimball

I'm afraid that just as wealth and privilege can be a stumbling block on the path to the gospel, theological expertise and piety can also get in the way of the kingdom. Like wealth, these are not inherently bad things. However, they are easily idolized. The longer our lists of rules and regulations, the more likely it is that God himself will break one. — Rachel Held Evans

Your drudgery is another person's delight. It's only a job if you treat it that way. The privilege to do our work, to be in control of the promises we make and the things we build, is something worth cherishing. — Seth Godin

Colleges and universities, meanwhile, have no such qualms about torturing their applicants. Think about how much work a high-school student must do to even be considered for a spot at a decent college. The difference in college and job applications is especially striking when you consider that a job applicant will be getting paid upon acceptance while a college applicant will be paying for the privilege to attend. — Steven D. Levitt

We have the incredible privilege of serving in the highest offices in the state. We must prove ourselves worthy of our fellow citizens' faith. We must be trusted to always place the public's good above our own and to always choose fairness over favoritism. — Jodi Rell

So what have I learned that is helpful? Well, if you are white, like I am, you can't get rid of the privilege you have, but you can use it for good. Don't say I don't even notice race! like it's a positive thing. Instead, recognize that differences between people make it harder for some to cross a finish line, and create fair paths to success for everyone that accommodate those differences. Educate yourself. If you think someone's voice is being ignored, tell others to listen. If your friend makes a racist joke, call him out on it, instead of just going along with it. If the two former skinheads I met can have such a complete change of heart, I feel confident that ordinary people can, too. — Jodi Picoult

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth. — Shirley Chisholm

Happiness feels like a privilege to struggling kids, but inspiration feels like home. — Elaina Marie

When I treat other people with kindness and love, it is part of my way of paying my debt to God and the world for the privilege of living on this planet. — Ben Carson

The revolutionists did not succeed in establishing human freedom; they poured the new wine of belief in equal rights for all men into the old bottle of privilege for some; and it soured. — Suzanne La Follette

And he suddenly realized the meaning of the word 'dissipate'
to dissipate into thin air; to make nothing out of something. In the little hours of the night every move from place to place was an enormous human jump, an increase of paying for the privilege of slower and slower motion. — F Scott Fitzgerald

Representing Australia has always been a honour and a privilege, and the older and more experienced I get, the more I enjoy it. — Cadel Evans

It is the privilege and duty of the present generation to pass on to its successors, unimpaired, the heritage of liberty bequeathed to it by the founders of the Republic. — George B. Cortelyou

When you - when you become the manager of a major league team, particularly the Dodgers, to me, that's a privilege and an honor. No matter where you go or what you do, you represent that position that you have. And you represent that organization that gave you the opportunity to be doing what you're doing. — Tommy Lasorda

She had privacy, and the privilege of walking up and down the same battlements as the sentries. — John Peter Nettl

Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege. — Tommy Douglas

Justice requires that you should not place the burdens of one man on the shoulders of another man, even though he is better able to bear them. In plainer words, that you should not make one set of men pay for what is used by another set of men. — Auberon Herbert

The privilege I've had as a curator is not just the discovery of new works ... but what I've discovered about myself and what I can offer in the space of an exhibition - to talk about beauty, to talk about power, to talk about ourselves, and to talk and speak to each other. — Thelma Golden

The only reward the musician receives is music: The privilege of standing in the presence of music when it leans over and takes unto its confidence. As it is for the audience. In this moment everything else is irrelevant and without power. For those in music, this is the moment when life becomes unreal. — Robert Fripp

I want a Britain that is one nation, with shared values and purpose, where merit comes before privilege, run for the many not the few, strong and sure of itself at home and abroad. — Tony Blair

Finally, consider your predicament a privilege in a world so shrunken that certain people refer to it as the 'global village.' The term 'explorer' has little meaning. But exploration is nothing more than a faray into the unknown, and a four-year old child, wandering about along in the department store, fits the definition as well as the snow-blind man wandering across the Khyber Pass. The explorer is the person who is lost. — Tim Cahill

To obey God, is not so much our duty - as our privilege; his commands carry food in the mouth of them. He bids us repent - and why? That our sins may be blotted out. Acts 3:19. He commands us to believe - and why? That we may be saved. Acts 16:31. There is love in every command. It is as if a king should bid one of his subjects dig in a gold mine, and then keep the gold for himself. — Thomas Watson

Being a role model is a privilege. — Allyson Felix

A heaven in a gaze,
A heaven of heavens, the privilege
Of one another's eyes. — Emily Dickinson

The sound she is making is the sound hearts make after they're in
pieces and the fragments dissolve into the overwhelming sadness of the
universe. The power to hear it may be the only privilege of the
thoroughly dispossessed. — John Burdett

I've always seen it to be a privilege to make movies. It's a really expensive, creative medium. — Denzel Washington

Leaders have the privilege and responsibility of going first. The most powerful way that anybody can lead is by example. — Michael Hyatt

My privilege as a white Jewish American in Israel is a major factor in getting me so much access to the key institutions of the Jewish state. — Max Blumenthal

9/11/01
Gina:
Especially today, with the enormity of current events, I want to convey to you again, how much you mean to me and how proud I am to be your husband. The hard work that you are engaged in right now is exhausting, invisible and largely thankless in the short term.
But honey, please know that buried at the core of this tedium is the most noble and important work in the world- God's work; the fruits of which you and I will be lucky enough to enjoy as we grow old together. Watching these little guys grow into men is a privilege that I am proud to share with you, and the perfect fulfillment of our marriage bonds.
You are a great mom.
You are a great wife.
You are my best friend.
You are very pretty.
Happy Birthday.

-Matt — Michael Spehn

Rhode Island has become a second home to me after being involved in its cultural life for over 61 years. I look upon it as a privilege to be inducted into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame. — George Wein

I just think the most difficult thing to displace is privilege. — Sean Connery

People need to stand up, women need to stand up for each other and say, "No you can't kick this person like they're a dog. You can disagree with someone politically, you can have arguments, definitely privilege needs to be discussed in real productive and valid ways. But it's not real criticism if it's just like, "you're a disgusting bad person." — Kathleen Hanna

Gansey ... instead gave himself over to feeling sorry for himself, that he should have so many friends and yet feel so very alone. He felt it fell to him to comfort them, but never the other way around.
As it should be, he thought, abruptly angry with himself. You've had it the easiest. What good is all your privilege, you soft, spoiled thing, if you can't stand on your own legs? — Maggie Stiefvater

To me, this is the singular privilege of reading literature: we are allowed to step into another's life. — Nicole Krauss

The worries that are the burden of which the privileged person makes an excuse in dealing with the oppressed person are in fact the worries about preserving his privileged condition. — Franz Kafka

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. — C. G. Jung

No system that implies control of society by privilege seekers has ever ended any other way but collapse — William E. Dodd

The fact that everyone between seventeen and thirty-five or so is liable to be (as Nim put it) "tied down to childbearing," implies that no one is quite so thoroughly "tied down" here as women, elsewhere are likely to be
psychologically or physically. Burden and privilege are shared out pretty equally; everybody has the same risk to run or choice to make. Therefore nobody here is quite so free as a free male anywhere else. — Ursula K. Le Guin

The luxury to disparage freedom is the privilege of those who already possess it. — Bertrand Russell

The discussion of any subject is a right that you have brought into the world with your heart and tongue. Resign your heart's blood before you part with this inestimable privilege of man. — Percy Bysshe Shelley

Every person has many identities, and experiences those identities in unique ways, depending on location, time, and the rest of who they are. Not only can a single person experience both oppression and privilege, most of us do! Being able to accept and present that reality, being both privileged and oppressed, helps others see the complexity of both issues, and creates some wiggle room for a productive dialogue. — Sam Killermann

It's a privilege to act, and you have to protect and cherish it. — Jesse Metcalfe

First reason is, it's not authorized in the Constitution, it's an illegal institution. The second reason, it's an immoral institution, because we have delivered to a secretive body the privilege of creating money out of thin air; if you or I did it, we'd be called counterfeiters, so why have we legalized counterfeiting? But the economic reasons are overwhelming: the Federal Reserve is the creature that destroys value. — Ron Paul

It's the privilege of a lifetime for me to work with the most innovative people on Earth. Only Apple can deliver this kind of innovation in such a beautiful, integrated, and easy to use way. It's what we love to do, it's what we stand for. — Tim Cook

It is only in relation to state action that the interests of different men become welded into "classes," for state action must always privilege one or more groups and discriminate against others. The homogeneity emerges from the intervention of the government in society. Thus, under feudalism or other forms of "land monopoly" and arbitrary land allocation by the government, the feudal landlords, privileged by the state, become a "class' (or "caste" or "estate"). And the peasants, homogeneously exploited by state privilege, also become a class. For the former thus constitute a "ruling class" and the latter the "ruled. — Murray N. Rothbard

Good, modern, civilized Western white men are so easily cowed by charges of bias and privilege that they work tirelessly to outdo each other with social displays of moral universalism - by cucking themselves in every way imaginable. Western — Jack Donovan

For truth itself does not have the privilege to be employed at any time and in every way; its use, noble as it is, has its circumscriptions and limits. — Michel De Montaigne

Understand that being able to say, 'I don't know what to do with my life' is an incredible privilege that 99% of the rest of the world will never enjoy. — Chris Ware

Never live beneath your privileges. — Wayne Dyer

Were the offer made true, I would engage to run again, from beginning to end, the same career of life. All I would ask should be the privilege of an author, to correct, in a second edition, certain errors of the first. — Benjamin Franklin

I don't see how being handsome can possibly harm a man. It's just another cheap privilege that took zero effort to attain. — Jamie Le Fay

Motherhood is neither a duty nor a privilege, but simply the way that humanity can satisfy the desire for physical immortality and triumph over the fear of death. — Rebecca West

The greatest and most amiable privilege which the rich enjoy over the poor is that which they exercise the least
the privilege of making others happy. — Charles Caleb Colton

First and foremost, [Writing] reminds us that we are alive and that it is gift and a privilege, not a right. We must earn life once it has been awarded us. Life asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation. — Ray Bradbury

We touch people's lives simply by existing. That is our privilege and our burden. — J.K. Rowling

Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission. — Vannevar Bush

The act of claiming an identity can be transformational. It can provide healing and empowerment. It can weld solidarity within a community. And, perhaps most importantly, it can diminish power from an oppressor, a dominant group. — Simon Tam

The administration Ill bring is a group of men and women who are focused on whats best for America, honest men and women, decent men and women, women who will see service to our country as a great privilege and who will not stain the house. — George W. Bush

I think escapism is very important, certainly in my life. I love nothing more than escaping into the world of a film or a novel. To be involved in creating that for other people is a privilege. — Ben Barnes

Forget that I'm a woman. Forget the accusations that I am a Right Winger demanding privilege - I had precious little privilege in my early years. — Margaret Thatcher

Opportunity is responsibility. It is a fleeing conjunction of circumstances. It is a test as well as a privilege. To be always equal to the opportunity, - what more could be said of the highest success in life? — Lilian Whiting

I'm not interested in defending the position of those who already have money, power and privilege. — Michael Gove

The process of self-healing is the privilege of every being. Self-healing is not a miracle, nor is self-healing a dramatization of the personality as though you could do something superior. Self-healing is a genuine process of the relationship between the physical and the infinite power of the soul. — Harbhajan Singh Yogi

Speaking and writing English perfectly should not be a privilege. To those who try to politicize this matter, I tell them now, do not mess with the future of our children. — Luis Fortuno

No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even then be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement? On the contrary, has not science the noble privilege of carrying on its controversies without personal quarrels? — Rudolf Virchow

I will always treasure the privilege of writing the 'Sports of The Times' column. — George Vecsey

He would now have comprehended that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whaterver a body is not obliged to do. And this would help him to understand why construcing artificial flowers or performing on a tread-mill, is work, whilst rolling nine-pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service that would turn it into work, then they would resign. — Mark Twain

I think that every new record is a chance to ... I think what it is for me is my heart and soul at that moment in time ... I've always felt that just being able to make a record is a privilege. — Mary Chapin Carpenter

Make health care a right, not a privilege. — Ed Pastor

How soon human beings forget what a privilege it is to live in freedom. A privilege, not an honor. An honor would mean we deserved it. We do not. — Walter Kirn

What I want to know is when does Lily get off her butt and do some chores?" Tristan said, panting, as he dragged a gnarly stump of bleached wood up the beach. "I feel like I've been stacking wood and stoking fire all damn day while she just sits there."
Rowan gave Tristan a disapproving look. "It's a mechanic's privilege to serve his witch. — Josephine Angelini

Well you're talking about a long career, a lot of movies, a lot of stars. I guess working with Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn was a great privilege. — Mark Rydell

Love is a consistent passion to give, not a meek persistent hope to receive. The only demand of life is the privilege to love all. — Chinmayananda Saraswati

Pay attention. Driving is a privilege." "Whateves, Grandma M. — A.G. Howard

A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male dominated, male identified, and male centered. It is also organized around an obsession with control and involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women.... If men occupy superior positions, it's a short leap to the idea that men must be superior...[and that] whatever men do will tend to be seen as having greater value. — Allan G. Johnson

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love ... — Marcus Aurelius

If [you] are [a Christian] ... you should feel secure and honored that God loves you so much! That knowledge is a joy and a privilege. No one can ever take that from you because no one can ever take you from God! — Van Harden

I don't live beyond my means. I enjoy luxury and I enjoy the privilege of it, when I can afford it, and I'm in the situation where it's been given to me, but I'm very conscious of what is wasteful. — Benedict Cumberbatch

Most of all, God has blessed us by giving us the privilege of knowing Him and walking with Him every day. He did this by sending His Son into the world to die for our sins. — Billy Graham

We would all like you to know what a ... privilege it has been to make you look your best. Then — Suzanne Collins

It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art. — Samuel Johnson

Stalin's henchman Molotov, 96, died old and in bed, a privilege he helped to deny to millions. — George Will

I believe our education system as a whole has not integrated the histories of all people into our education system, just the Eurocentric view of itself, and the White-centered view of African Americans, and even this is slim to nonexistent. What I find is that most people don't know the fact they don't know, because of the complete lack of information. — Ronald Takaki

When I run across something so incredible that I want to show it to someone else. The problem is, when you make the choice to be a loner, you lose that privilege. — Jodi Picoult

We who were born into privilege and opportunity were given these gifts with an expectation: to give them away. — Jeff Goins

Man's most sacred privilege is freedom of will, the ability to obey or disobey his Maker. — Joseph Hertz

What greater happiness is there than the privilege of being bored together? — Curtis Sittenfeld

It will change everything. We won't need governments and corporations. The very concepts our economic and social systems are based on: money, wealth, privilege, will be meaningless. What use is money when everyone can build everything they need?'...
'These are people who've spent their whole lives fighting their way to the top and you're just going to tell them that there is no top anymore?... it's you that doesn't understand: they only care about material things as status symbols, to show that they're better than everyone else, that they've beaten everyone else, that's what drives them. They'll never give that up. — K. Valisumbra