Justice

She was not a white man. So Clara rewrote the law that governed the practice of law in California, replacing 'white man' with 'any citizen or person resident of this state.'

Making a difference as a lawyer means devoting time to public service. This is what makes the practice of law a profession, and not just a job.

We don't always see the hard truths, and once we see them, we don't always have the courage to speak out. The world was not equal then, and it is not equal now.

The first time I spoke out about what it was like to be a woman in the workforce was less than five years ago. That means that for eighteen years, from where you sit to where I stand, my silence implied that everything was OK. You can do better than I did.

We're taught when we're young that the opposite of love is hate. But it's not. Hate is a byproduct. The opposite of love is fear. Fear is what blinds us. Fear is corrosive. Fear makes us hold back.

The first steps toward non-violence, which is surely an absolute obligation we all bear, is to begin to think carefully and to ask others to do the same.

A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment, luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and probably income, luckiest in their educational and career opportunities — those are the folks who reap the largest rewards.

So fight to make a difference in this world. Fight for good. Fight for fairness. Fight on!

If you live long enough, every defeat will turn into a victory.

You can never be truly free if you do not join efforts to free someone else. The function of freedom is always to free someone else.

I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever, but to be part of an ongoing historical movement.

Hopes, dreams, and aspirations are evenly distributed throughout the entire world. But what is not is justice, opportunity, and working systems.