Jonathan Kozol

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.”

“The cause of homelessness is lack of housing.”

“Children cannot lobby Congress. They cannot vote. They cannot make campaign contributions. They can only bleed.”

“A dream, if it's a true dream, is one that protects the dreamer.”

“Savage inequalities exist on the basis of race and class all over the United States in the schools that we force children to attend.”

“The first goal and primary function of the U.S. public school is not to educate good people, but good citizens. It is the function which we call - in enemy nations - 'state indoctrination'.”

“If we do not get the choice to be happy, we will at least get the choice to be rebellious.”

“What is it about the moment you are born that determines the outcome of your life?”

“There is something profoundly cynical about taking from the poor and giving to the rich in the name of liberty.”

“The children in our poorest rural and urban schools are not 'under-performing.' They are being 'under-funded'.”

“Apartheid is not a distant phenomenon, confined to a far-off country. It is a reality in our own cities.”

“Simply to exist, that is, to be a non-person in a world where everyone else is a person, is a form of suffering.”

“Good teachers, like good doctors, are always close to the people they serve.”

“We cannot afford to have a two-tiered society in which a few people live in luxury while millions live in poverty.”

“The future of our nation depends on our ability to produce a literate and informed citizenry.”