Small Great Things Quotes

“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Equality is treating everyone the same. But equity is taking differences into account, so everyone has a chance to succeed.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“What if the puzzle of the world was a shape you didn't fit into? And the only way to survive was to mutilate yourself, carve away your corners, sand yourself down, modify yourself to fit? How come we haven't been able to change the puzzle instead?”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“It just goes to show you: every baby is born beautiful.
It's what we project on them that makes them ugly.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are. —BENJAMIN FRANKLIN”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“If the past few months have taught me anything, it's that friendship is a smoke screen. The people you think are solid turn out to be mirrors and light; and then you look down and realize there are others you took for granted, those who are your foundation.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“There is no such thing as a fact. There is only how you saw the fact, in a given moment. How you reported the fact. How your brain processed that fact. There is no extrication of the storyteller from the story.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Love has nothing to do with what you're looking at and everything to do with who's looking.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Pride is an evil dragon; it sleeps underneath your heart and then roars when you need silence.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Active racism is telling a nurse supervisor that an African American nurse can’t touch your baby. It’s snickering at a black joke. But passive racism? It’s noticing there’s only one person of color in your office and not asking your boss why. It’s reading your kid’s fourth-grade curriculum and seeing that the only black history covered is slavery, and not questioning why. It’s defending a woman in court whose indictment directly resulted from her race…and glossing over that fact, like it hardly matters.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. —NELSON MANDELA, LONG WALK TO FREEDOM”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“In a lot of ways, having a teenager isn't all that different from having a newborn. You learn to read the reactions, because they're incapable of saying exactly what it is that's causing pain.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“That’s because racism isn’t just about hate. We all have biases, even if don’t think we do. It’s because racism is also about who has power…and who has access to it.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Prejudice goes both ways, you know. There are people who suffer from it, and there are people who profit from it.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“You say you don’t see color…but that’s all you see. You’re so hyperaware of it, and of trying to look like you aren’t prejudiced, you can’t even understand that when you say race doesn’t matter all I hear is you dismissing what I’ve felt, what I’ve lived, what it’s like to be put down because of the color of my skin.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Admitting that racism has played a part in our success means admitting that the American dream isn’t quite so accessible to all.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“It’s the difference between dancing along the eggshell crust of acquaintance and diving into the messy center of a relationship. It’s not always perfect; it’s not always pleasant—but because it is rooted in respect, it is unshakable.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Babies are such blank slates. They don’t come into this world with the assumptions their parents have made, or the promises their church will give, or the ability to sort people into groups they like and don’t like. They don’t come into this world with anything, really, except a need for comfort. And they will take it from anyone, without judging the giver. I wonder how long it takes before the polish given by nature gets worn off by nurture.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“What if, ladies and gentlemen, today I told you that anyone here who was born on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday was free to leave right now? Also, they'd be given the most central parking spots in the city, and the biggest houses. They would get job interviews before others who were born later in the week, and they'd be taken first at the doctor's office, no matter how many patients were waiting in line. If you were born from Thursday to Sunday, you might try to catch up – but because you were straggling behind, the press would always point to how inefficient you are. And if you complained, you'd be dismissed for playing the birth-day card.” I shrug. “Seems silly, right? But what if on top of these arbitrary systems that inhibited your chances for success, everyone kept telling you that things were actually pretty equal?”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Do you think there will ever be a time when racism doesn't exist?"

"No, because that means white people would have to buy into being equal. Who'd choose to dismantle the system that makes them special?”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“True confession: The reason we don't talk about race is because we do not speak a common language.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“one day, you turn around, and your baby is a man. One day, you look in the mirror, and see gray hair. One day, you realize there is less of your life left than what you’ve already lived.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Did you ever think our misfortune is directly related to your good fortune? Maybe the house your parents bought was on the market because the sellers didn't want my mama in the neighborhood. Maybe the good grades that eventually led you to law school were possible because your mama didn't have to work eighteen hours a day, and was there to read to you at night, or make sure you did your homework. How often do you remind yourself how lucky you are that you own your house, because you were able to build up equity through generations in a way families of color can't? How often do you open your mouth at work and think how awesome it is that no one's thinking you're speaking for everyone with the same skin color you have? How hard is it for you to find the greeting card for your baby's birthday with a picture of a child that has the same color skin as her? How many times have you seen a painting of Jesus that looks like you? Prejudice goes both ways, you know. There are people who suffer from it, and there are people who profit from it.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“the reason we lose people we care about is so we’re more grateful for the ones we still have.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“Just because something is different does not mean it should not be respected.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“The truth has teeth.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“I feel like I've been standing underneath an open window, just as a baby gets tossed out. I grab the baby, right, because who wouldn't? But then another baby gets tossed out, so I pass the baby to someone else, and I make the catch. This keeps happening. And before you know it there are a whole bunch of people who are getting really good at passing along babies, just like I'm good at catching them, but no one ever asks who the fuck is throwing the babies out the window in the first place.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“I tell them that there is nothing more selfish than trying to change someone's mind because they don't think like you. Just because something is different does not mean it should not be respected.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things

“When it comes to social justice, the role of the white ally is not to be a savior or a fixer. Instead, the role of the ally is to find other white people and talk to make them see that many of the benefits they’ve enjoyed in life are direct results of the fact that someone else did not have the same benefits.”
― Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things