Clarence Thomas Quotes (38 Quotes)


    Oh, I don't think Tom Sowell would tell anybody to join the administration. That's not his style. But I think his attitude has always been if it had to be done he'd prefer me to do it than somebody else.

    I was sympathetic to virtually all groups that wanted to get away from the old system.

    And I don't think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there's another set of moral codes, but I don't think government has a role.

    I certainly have some very strong libertarian leanings, yes.

    But I know that the vote of 9 out of 10 black Americans for the Democratic Party or for leftist kinds of policies just is not reflective of their opinions.


    I think, though, if I had to look at the role of government and what it does in people's lives, I see the EEOC as having much more legitimacy than the others, if properly run.

    Government cannot make us equal it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

    The state can't undo the harm that was done, but I feel very strongly that if there is any role for the state, it is to protect us from others.

    Any discrimination, like sharp turns in a road, becomes critical because of the tremendous speed at which we are traveling into the high-tech world of a service economy.

    Because the president, not the (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) could authorize or not authorize cross-border operations from Mexican motor carriers, and because FMCSA has no discretion to prevent the entry of Mexican trucks, its EA did not need to consider the environmental effects arising from the entry,

    I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.

    The myths that are created about the South, about the way we grew up, about black people, are wrong.

    the demeaning treatment Anita Hill received before the all-male committee.

    The truth of the matter is we have become more interested in designer jeans and break dancing than we are in obligations and responsibilities.

    I came from the people that they're leading I didn't come from the leadership ranks, I came from among the people I'm most concerned about.

    I have to admit that I'm one of those people that thinks the dishwasher is a miracle.

    But Sen. Charles Schumer ( news , bio , voting record ), a New York Democrat, opposed Roberts, warning there's a reasonable danger ... the most radical justice on the Supreme Court.

    I think segregation is bad, I think it's wrong, it's immoral. I'd fight against it with every breath in my body, but you don't need to sit next to a white person to learn how to read and write. The NAACP needs to say that.

    When I was a kid, we said that we were precluded from going to certain neighborhoods because of the color of our skin Now the neighborhoods are the neighborhoods of ideas, youre not supposed to be there because of the color of your skin.

    I think Juan stopped short - he got halfway to the destination and got off the train. He is certainly an excellent writer and a good person, but I'm not a nationalist.

    The job of a judge is to figure out what the law says, not what he wants it to say. There is a difference between the role of a judge and that of a policy maker.... Judging requires a certain impartiality.

    a good man who epitomized fairness, dignity and strength of character.

    Unfortunately, the reality was that, for political reasons or whatever, there was a need to enforce antidiscrimination laws, or at least there was a perceived need to do that.

    The Constitution, in addition to delegating certain enumerated powers to Congress, places whole areas outside the reach of Congress regulatory authority. The First Amendment, for example, is fittingly celebrated for preventing Congress from 'prohibiting the free exercise' of religion or 'abridging the freedom of speech.' The Second Amendment similarly appears to contain an express limitation on the governments authority.... This Court has not had recent occasion to consider the nature of the substantive right safeguarded by the Second Amendment. If, however, the Second Amendment is read to confer a personal right to 'keep and bear arms,' a colorable argument exists that the Federal Governments regulatory scheme, at least as it pertains to the purely intrastate sale or possession of firearms, runs afoul of that Amendments protections.

    She was a student member of the promotions committee for Rocky Dailey. I was supposed to get in contact with her but couldn't reach her. The police told the dean who told me that she had just died.


    I' been very partial to Malcolm X, particularly his self-help teachings.

    When you look at where the real problems are among minorities in our society, particularly blacks, it's at the bottom. It's the people who are in school systems that don't educate, neighborhoods where there is a lot of crime, drugs, the whole bit.

    We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.

    I tend to really be partial to Ayn Rand, and to The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

    But what I believe is that if a person's individual rights or right to be a part of our economic system is violated under statute, we aggressively go after it. But we don't issue mandates to businesses that you've got to do this and you've got to do that.

    Today, now, it is time to move forward, a time to look for what is good in others, what is good in our country. It is time to see what we have in common, what we have to share as human beings and citizens.

    It really bugs me that someone will tell me, after I spent 20 years being educated, how I'm supposed to think.

    Even as someone who's labeled a conservative - I'm a Republican I'm black, I'm heading up this organization in the Reagan administration - I can say that conservatives don't exactly break their necks to tell blacks that they're welcome.

    When you prevent somebody from participating in our free society and the economics of our free society, I have some real problems.

    The thing that bothered me when I was in college was that I saw myself rejecting the way of life that got me to where I was.

    Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot.

    I don't know one of my friends who is considered a conservative who has not had to go back and thoroughly think through everything. You do a lot of soul-searching - 'cause we are not going to win any popularity contests.


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