passages in pencil

I'm beginning to like the British Library. It's actually quite a strangely pleasing ritual - emptying your things into a clear plastic bag, leaving possessions in lockers and cloakroom, finding a desk, having pre-ordered books ready for collection, and then using pencils to write down notes.

p. 242
"Moral realism requires this ideological basis; the consciousness of the poor is permeated by a profound sense of being oppressed, not simply because the rich oppress them brazenly but because it is poverty itself that oppress them. To be poor is to be without and, therefore, to be an outsider in the vibrant and meaningful political, economic and social life of the modern human community. Above all, being poor is being invisible. Violence makes the poor visible.

Of what good is democracy if it is not for the poor?"

p. 257
"We have just begun the reconstruction of our destinies. Given the farce and tragedy that is history, our success or failure will be less important, perhaps, than our singular attempts to take our fate into our own hands, With the only power that is truly ours - the power of thought - we are starting to make clear to ourselves the essential meaning of our humanity and our obligations towards it - as leaders and peoples in the Third World."