The Other Wes Moore Quotes

“The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.”
― Tavis Smiley, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were even here.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“I sat back, allowing Wes's words to sink in. Then I responded, "I guess it's hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better." (quoted from Samuel Buckett)... Failing does not make us a failure. But not trying to do better, to be better, does make us fools.”
― Travis Smiley- on the book Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“The common bond of humanity and decency that we share is stronger than any conflict, any adversity. Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom. Ubuntu was right.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Life’s impermanence, I realized, is what makes every single day so precious. It’s what shapes our time here. It’s what makes it so important that not a single moment be wasted.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Failing doesn't make us a failure. But not trying to do better, to be better, does make us fools.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“The common bond of humanity and decency that we share is stronger than any conflict, any adversity, any challenge. Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“I realized then how difficult it is to separate the two. The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“...I found myself surrounded by people--starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a string of wonderful role models and mentors--who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself. People who taught me that no accident of birth--not being black or relatively poor, being from Baltimore or the Bronx or fatherless--would ever define or limit me.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“-After all this pain and heartache, how are you now able to forgive? You seem so at peace with yourself and your life. How are you so able to move on?...
-Because Mr. Mandela asked us to.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Later in life I learned that the way many governors projected the numbers of beds they’d need for prison facilities was by examining the reading scores of third graders. Elected officials deduced that a strong percentage of kids reading below their grade level by third grade would be needing a secure place to stay when they got older.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“But there was a more recent author and public figure whose work spoke to the core of a new set of issues I was struggling with: the Bronx's own Colin Powell. His book, My American Journey, helped me harmonize my understanding of America's history and my aspiration to serve her in uniform. In his autobiography he talked about going to the Woolworth's in Columbus, Georgia, and being able to shop but not eat there. He talked about how black GIs during World War II had more freedoms when stationed in Germany than back in the country they fought for. But he embraced the progress this nation made and the military's role in helping that change to come about. Colin Powell could have been justifiably angry, but he wasn't. He was thankful. I read and reread one section in particular:

The Army was living the democratic ideal ahead of the rest of America. Beginning in the fifties, less discrimination, a truer merit system, and leveler playing fields existed inside the gates of our military posts more than in any Southern city hall or Northern corporation. The Army, therefore, made it easier for me to love my country, with all its flaws, and to serve her with all of my heart." -The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates (p. 131)”
― Moore, Wes, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“I hear you, but it's not the process you should focus on; it's the joy you will feel after you go through the process.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Wes didn't think Tony was a hypocrite exactly--he knew why his brother felt obliged to warn him off. But it was clear that Tony didn't have any better ideas or he would've made those moves himself.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“I was taught to remember, but never question. Wes was taught to forget, and never ask why. We learned our lessons well and were showing them off to a tee. We sat there, just a few feet from each other, both silent, pondering an absence.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“It made me think deeply about the way privilege and preference work in the world, and how many kids who didn't have 'luck' like mine in this instance would find themselves forever outside the ring of power and prestige.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Wes wanted to be just like Tony. Tony wanted Wes to be nothing like him.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“But what all these responses have in common is that they point to the decisive power of information and stories [...]”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“Fundamentally, this story is about two boys, each of whom was going through his own personal journey and searching for help. One of them received it; the other didn't. And now the world stands witness to the results. Small interactions and effortless acts of kindness can mean the difference between failure and success, pain and pleasure - or becoming the people we loathe or love to become. We are more powerful than we realize, and I urge you to internalize the meaning of this remarkable story and unleash your own power. (Tavis Smiley)”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“They would work together, fight together, stay together. An unbreakable bond united the crew - for many members it was the only support system they had. It was family.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“The expectations that others play on us help us form our expectations of ourselves.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“It started to become clear to Wes: the drug game was raw capitalism on overdrive with bullets, a pyramid scheme whose base was dead bodies and ruined lives.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“When it is time for you to leave this school, leave your job, or even leave this earth, you make sure you have worked hard to make sure it mattered you were ever here.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“A year after completing the Job Corps training, Wes realized the only consistency in his employment was inconsistency. That, and the fact that none of these jobs paid over nine dollars an hour.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

“In the eternal words of Sir William Ernest Henley:

Beyond this place of wrath and tears,
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years,
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
― Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates