Inclusion Quotes

“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.”
― Shirley Chisholm

“The antidote to feel-good history is not feel-bad history but honest and inclusive history.”
― James W. Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

“When Europeans arrived on this continent, they blew it with the Native Americans. They plowed over them, taking as much as they could of their land and valuables, and respecting almost nothing about the native cultures. They lost the wisdom of the indigenous peoples-wisdom about the land and connectedness to the great web of life…We have another chance with all these refugees. People come here penniless but not cultureless. They bring us gifts. We can synthesize the best of our traditions with the best of theirs. We can teach and learn from each other to produce a better America…”
― Mary Pipher

“Compassion isn't just about feeling the pain of others; it's about bringing them in toward yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased. 'Be compassionate as God is compassionate,' means the dismantling of barriers that exclude.

In Scripture, Jesus is in a house so packed that no one can come through the door anymore. So the people open the roof and lower this paralytic down through it, so Jesus can heal him. The focus of the story is, understandably, the healing of the paralytic. But there is something more significant than that happening here. They're ripping the roof off the place, and those outside are being let in.”
― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

“The human heart is too grand to be wasted in the gutter of cultural exclusivity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

“The continuum in which we live is not the kind of place in which middles can be unambiguously excluded. ”
― Reuben Abel

“The light in me is the light in thee!”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“We all carry unseen stories under our skin. We hold identities around ethnicity, gender, ability, or religion that remain invisible and are discounted by the world around us. We wish for a sense of belonging without negotiation, explanation, or being required to somehow prove our validity. In a world of separation and division, we need to learn to be better at seeing (and believing) each other.”
― Jeanette LeBlanc

“It's a small world as it is, don't make it smaller still with your puny, archaic customs of division.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Beyond tongue and tradition,
Beyond ignorance and intolerance,
Beyond fear and fanaticism,
Beyond rigidity and recklessness,
Beyond the desert of dead habit,
Beyond the logical heartlessness,
Beyond the lies of selfish order,
Beyond the highs of whims and wishes,
There's a valley of love and laughter.
Come someday, I shall meet you there.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“If immigrants ain't real Americans,
Neither is our revered Lady Liberty.
She too came from a distant land,
Yet today she is the American epitome...
Though I belong to the whole wide world,
Land of Lady Liberty is my home country.
A nation's character isn't defined by rigidity,
It is defined by a hearty unity in diversity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Handcrafted Humanity: 100 Sonnets For A Blunderful World

“Proof of poetry is in the spirit,
Proof of justice is among the just.
Worlds to unite before I sleep,
Proof of life is in standing guard.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Lives to Serve Before I Sleep
(The Sonnet)

Lives to serve before I sleep,
Service is my salvation.
Wounds to heal before I sleep,
Selfless joy brings illumination.

There are times people need help,
there are times they need motivation.
Keep your mouth absolutely shut,
if you cannot make the distinction.

Bridges to build before I sleep,
Walls are too savage a burden.
Tears to wipe before I sleep,
In human smile lies human heaven.

Chains to hack before I sleep,
Chains hack humanity to pieces.
Peace to plant before I sleep,
Come join me, let's grow a forest!”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Chains to hack before I sleep,
Chains hack humanity to pieces.
Peace to plant before I sleep,
Come join me, let's grow a forest!”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Lives to serve before I sleep,
Service is my salvation.
Wounds to heal before I sleep,
Selfless joy brings illumination.

Bridges to build before I sleep,
Walls are too savage a burden.
Tears to wipe before I sleep,
In human smile lies human heaven.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Height of Human (The Sonnet)

Enter a hall with high
ceiling, and you feel small,
in a room with low ceiling
you feel like a giant.

The height of human
doesn't depend on numbers,
we judge our height
relative to the world around.

Bigots hate an inclusive world
not because it is unorthodox,
but because it reminds them,
how puny they are - how small.

Hence they lash out at an island
of people, as an island of garbage.
Only garbage are those calling others
as such - time 'tis to hand them sentence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Enter a hall with high ceiling, and you feel small, in a room with low ceiling you feel like a giant. The height of human doesn't depend on numbers, we judge our height relative to the world around. Bigots hate an inclusive world not because it is unorthodox, but because it reminds them, how puny they are - how small.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Declaration of Justice:

In the course of human events, if ever, injustice grabs hold of the landscape that we the people step foot on, it will be our organically divine right to abolish such injustice, with our thoughts, words and actions conscientious. We the people, each one of us, will do our utmost to create a society that needs not the intervention of law or any specialist authority. We will create a society of humans with our own two hands for the humans that are yet to be born, so that they may know justice and order in their life, which we have been deprived of due to the indifference and callousness of our ancestors. We the living, breathing and thinking humans do solemnly declare upon our functional conscience, that from this moment onwards, we will no longer adhere to the traditional habit of dependency, hypocrisy and meekness, and we will come to the aid of every human who faces injustice in any form, with this golden principle engraved upon our hearts, that there are no foreigners, only family.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Operation Justice: To Make A Society That Needs No Law

“Integration 101: I don't exist,
that's my law of integration.
Had I not told you my name,
it'd be impossible for you
to know my culture and nation.

Any ape can boast about its culture,
I'll die roaring for all but my own.
I am local of a borderblind world,
something illegible to the cavegrown.

Borders are glorified apartheid,
Passports are glorified bus pass.
No peace can ever come to light,
from the doings of apartheid heart.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“My existence is testament to assimilation, proof of the wonders beyond exclusivity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“All of us are born in a mother's womb,
In mother nature's lap we fall asleep.
Why do you bicker over archaic walls,
The light in me is the light in thee!”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“To transcend culture is the beginning of culture.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“World is the gateway to life, life is gateway to the world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Awake, arise, abandon divide!”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“I am a riddle most simple,
yet at the same time most complex.
Simple to those unchained by orthodoxy,
but complex, nonsense and even offensive,
to the proud merchants of prejudice.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator

“Black lives should not only matter when we are dead. We should matter while we are living.”
― Ahavel Aborishade

“If I had a child, I wouldn't teach them a single thing about the culture I was raised in - instead I'll hand over all the cultures I've assimilated throughout my life, so that one day they may grow up to be a whole human being, rather than a puny fragmented ape - so that they may become a large person in a small planet, rather than a small primate in a large world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim: Little Planet on The Prairie

“If it does not hurt you or others directly, why do you deny its existence? Why do you deny that this world is full of such rich colors? We do not know them all.”
― Sara Ellie MacKenzie

“Beyond fright there is flight,
Beyond blight there is light.
Beyond hate there is height,
Beyond MAGAts there is mind.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dunya Benim, Sorumluluk Benim: Little Planet on The Prairie

“Since the 1940s a sense of belonging has been recognized as a human psychological need and one of the major sources for human motivation. It’s important to us; whether we’re conscious of it or not, a sense of belonging keeps us healthy and happy.”
― Martin E. Dempsey, Radical Inclusion: What the Post-9/11 World Should Have Taught Us About Leadership