Gerry Spence Quotes

• We are defined by how we use our power.
• To freely bloom- that is my definition of success.
• I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.
• PREJUDICE
• HEART ZONE
• My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.
• The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them.
• Today the insatiable quest for profit promotes the new slavery. In bewildering ways, the new is more pernicious than the old, for the New American Slave is told he is free, and he clings to that myth as if his life depended upon it, a suspicion that cannot be totally ignored.
• As we drive down the freeways, we see the new cars, but not the massive new-car loans that enslave their drivers to the banks.
• When any system has for its goal the advancement of the system over the betterment of its individual members, such a system is embedded in slavery.
• Although the ideal of free enterprise could, indeed, lend itself to the uplifting of the human condition, when it is practiced for profit alone, it becomes but a license for the powerful to further enslave the weak.
• To accept capitalism and Free Enterprise as articles of faith without agreeing that we must be free to consider whether what is offered is free and freeing is itself enslavement.
• Slavery is a state of mind that fails to acknowledge the slave's own power.
• Children are persons. They are small persons whose perfect souls have not yet been ground through the meat grinder of slavery.
• I say, embrace fear as a friend. It is nature's gift to us. It is the best weapon for liberty. ... It permits us to escape or to fight with power beyond our ability.
• There are only two races (and they are not distinguished by color): those who are free and those who are not.
• To bargain freedom for security is the devil's bargain. Having made the bargain, one enjoys neither freedom nor security.
• The new and most powerful union of all will be a union of one -- one man, one woman, one worker with special skills, an inquiring mind, and an independent attitude, his creativity intact, his love of life blooming. The union of one will be peopled by one man or one woman who is alive. Such a person is always sought by the intelligent manager.
• Money in doses disproportionate to our needs enslaves.
• No artist's masterpiece can match a mother's creation of a successful child, one who has been freed to explore and to grow. ... Success is measured not only by who we are, but by what gifts we give. ... Ah, the mother whose gift to the world is a person!
• The less of one's life one must exchange for money, the more freedom one may enjoy.
• How much of our lives could we buy back if we cherished our lives instead of our trinkets?
• We cannot, as a people, remain mute and free.
• I dream of a time when the people will retake their airways and use them to achieve a voice to rediscover democracy, and to see the divine potential of man.
• Power can win the body count but it cannot win this war. Because the enemy is not human. This is a war against a malicious spirit. Only fools attempt to defeat a spirit with guns and rockets and bombs.
• The goal of a free nation is to reveal by example the enlightened possibilities of the human race, not to wield its power of destruction and death over the helpless, the poor, the starving and the war torn masses. The goal of a free nation must be no different outside its borders than within them. In America we do not massacre whole towns because they may be the chosen domicile of a criminal or a conspiracy of criminals. Instead we carefully root out the felons and bring them to justice.
• A new fascism promises security from the terror of crime. All that is required is that we take away the criminals' rights - which, of course, are our own. Out of our desperation and fear we begin to feel a sense of security from the new totalitarian state.
• Government [is] operated by deeply embedded, hopelessly entangled bureaus where nothing is accomplished because the function of the bureau is to intercept every living idea and smother it.
• Is there anyone I wouldn't take as a client? Well, I'd never represent a banker.
• Nearly every day on the television set the hero cop breaks into the bad guy's house and beats a confession out of him and we cheer on the cop. Propaganda smears our clear vision. It causes us to accept the diminishment of our constitutional protections as something to be lauded- after all, the cop was protecting us.
• The function of the law is not to provide justice or to preserve freedom. The function of the law is to keep those who hold power, in power.
• The Internet:has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction.
• What the insurance companies have done is to reverse the business so that the public at large insures the insurance companies.
• While birds can fly, only humans can argue. Argument is the affirmation of our being. It is the principal instrument of human intercourse. Without argument the species would perish. As a subtle suggestion, it is the means by which we aid another. As a warning, it steers us from danger. As exposition, it teaches. As an expression of creativity, it is the gift of ourselves. As a protest, it struggles for justice. As a reasoned dialogue, it resolves disputes. As an assertion of self, it engenders respect. As an entreaty of love, it expresses our devotion. As a plea, it generates mercy. As charismatic oration it moves multitudes and changes history. We must argue- to help, to warn, to lead, to love, to create, to learn, to enjoy justice, to be.

gerry spence