But black folks have never really been optimists. We've been prisoners of hope, and hope is qualitatively different from optimism in the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I'm not pessimistic, because poor people tend to bounce back. We've been through worse than this - working people been through worse… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Hope and optimism are different. Optimism tends to be based on the notion that there's enough evidence out there to believe things… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The blues aren’t pessimistic. We’re prisoners of hope but we tell the truth and the truth is dark. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I am not optimistic, but I've never been optimistic about humankind or America. The evidence never looks good in terms of forces… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Those who have never despaired have neither lived nor loved. Hope is inseparable from despair. Those of us who truly hope make… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
To accept your country without betraying it, you must love it for that which shows what it might become. America -- this… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There has certainly been ugly, right-wing hatred targeting Barack Obama. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.' — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I can't stand… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
