Bryan Stevenson famous quotes

03-24-2025

I don't think there's been a time in American history with more innocent people in prison.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Thinking #People #Prison
You ultimately judge the civility of a society not by how it treats the rich, the powerful, the protected and the highly esteemed, but by how it treats the poor, the disfavored and the disadvantaged....
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Powerful #Judging #Rich
We all have a responsibility to create a just society
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Responsibility
In many ways, weâ€™ve been taught to think that the real question is, â€˜Do people deserve to die for the crimes theyâ€™ve committed?â€™ And thatâ€™s a very sensible question. But thereâ€™s another way of thinking about where we are in our identity. The other way of thinking about it is not â€˜Do people deserve to die for the crimes they commit?â€™ but â€˜Do we deserve to kill?â€™
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Real #Thinking #People
Many states can no longer afford to support public education, public benefits, public services without doing something about the exorbitant costs that mass incarceration have created.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Support #Cost #Benefits
It can be a challenge, but my legacy, at least for the people who came before me, is you don't run from challenges because that's more comfortable and convenient.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Running #People #Challenges
My parents lived in a poor rural community on the Eastern Shore, and schools were still segregated. And I remember when lawyers came into our community to open up the public schools to black kids.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#School #Kids #Community
Always do the right thing even when the right thing is the hard thing
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Hard Things #Right Thing
The reality is that capital punishment in America is a lottery. It is a punishment that is shaped by the constraints of poverty, race, geography and local politics.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Reality #Race #Punishment
The death penalty symbolizes whom we fear and don't fear, whom we care about and whose lives are not valid.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Care #Death Penalty #Penalties
We have a system of justice in [the US] that treats you much better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. Wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Justice #Shapes #Outcomes
It's that mind-heart connection that I believe compels us to not just be attentive to all the bright and dazzling things but also the dark and difficult things.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Believe #Heart #Dark
I've come to understand and to believe that each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done. I believe that for every person on the planet. I think if somebody tells a lie, they're not just a liar. I think if somebody takes something that doesn't belong to them, they're not just a thief. I think even if you kill someone, you're not just a killer. And because of that, there's this basic human dignity that must be respected by law.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Liars #Lying #Believe
The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Character #Poor #Treats
All of our survival is tied to the survival of everyone,
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Survival
There is a strength, a power even, in understanding brokenness, because embracing our brokenness creates a need and desire for mercy, and perhaps a corresponding need to show mercy. When you experience mercy, you learn things that are hard to learn otherwise. You see things you can't otherwise see; you hear things you can't otherwise hear. You begin to recognize the humanity that resides in each of us.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Humanity #Understanding #Desire
We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps-we all need some measure of unmerited grace.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Believe #Compassion #Punishment
Why do we want to kill all the broken people?
-- Bryan Stevenson

#People #Broken #Want
But simply punishing the broken--walking away from them or hiding them from sight--only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Sight #Walking Away #Broken
Embracing a certain quotient of racial bias and discrimination against the poor is an inexorable aspect of supporting capital punishment. This is an immoral condition that makes rejecting the death penalty on moral grounds not only defensible but necessary for those who refuse to accept unequal or unjust administration of punishment.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Punishment #Unjust #Administration
Somebody has to stand when other people are sitting. Somebody has to speak when other people are quiet.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#People #Sitting #Quiet
Are you the sum total of your worst acts?
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Worst
We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Life #Hurt #Broken
You donâ€™t change the world with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction in your heart.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Heart #Ideas #Mind
Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Done #Worst
The opposite of poverty isn't wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.
-- Bryan Stevenson

#Opposites #Justice #Poverty

You may also like:

Ann Patchett
Author
Anthony Doerr
Author of novels
Anthony Marra
Writer
Atul Gawande
Surgeon
Carmine Gallo
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Writer
Desmond Tutu
Activist
Helen Prejean
Jandy Nelson
Writer
Jim Wallis
Writer
Jon Bon Jovi
Musician
Lani Guinier
Law professor
Michael B. Jordan
Actor
Michelle Alexander
Professor
Nicholas D. Kristof
Journalist
Philip Alston
Scholar
Philip K. Howard
Lawyer
Roz Chast
Cartoonist
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Writer
Tavis Smiley
Talk show host