Many people get goosebumps when they hear Martin Luther King, Jr.-in that potent voice of his-proclaiming, "I have a dreamÂ…," and when Richard Nixon declared, "I'm not a crook," many Americans frowned at their television sets and shook their fists. Words are powerful. Even a brief statement has the influence to evoke strong and sometimes unexpected reactions and emotions: glee, nausea, frustration, desire, anger, empathy, a will to act, to help, to fight.
Below, you will find a list of quotations by influential people. Some of these statements will undoubtedly induce a reaction from you. The reaction may be positive or negative. The quote might make you angry, or sad, or uplifted.
For this writing exam, choose one of the statements from the collection provided, and in a five-paragraph essay with a thesis/purpose statement, communicate whether or not you agree with the quotation, or whether or not you can relate to the quotation, and tell why you feel this way. You may wish to consider what about the statement evokes a response from you on an emotional level, and you may use personal experiences as support for your claim.
Carefully proofread your work before you submit your final essay.
Once you have submitted your essay, the English Department will consider your writing and make a determination about your course placement.
"A man can't ride your back unless it's bent."
- Martin Luther King, Jr. |1929-1968 | American Civil Rights leader
"Man's heart away from nature becomes hard."
- Standing Bear | c. 1834-1908 | Ponca Native American Chief
"Just because it's in print doesn't mean it's the gospel."
- Michael Jackson | 1958-2009 | American recording artist and entertainer
"This has always been a man's world, and none of the reasons that have been offered in explanation have seemed adequate."
- Simone de Beauvoir | 1908-1986 | French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver."
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi | 1869-1948 | the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement
"Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them."
- John Updike | 1932-present | American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic
"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host."
- Maya Angelou | 1928-present | American author and poet
"Neither comprehension nor learning can take place in an atmosphere of anxiety."
- Rose Kennedy | 1890-1995 | American philanthropist
"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land."
- Aldo Leopold | 1887-1948 | American author, scientist, ecologist, forester, and environmentalist
"The animals of the planet are in desperate peril... Without free animal life I believe we will lose the spiritual equivalent of oxygen."
- Alice Walker | 1944-present | Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, poet and activist
"Our envy of others devours us most of all."
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn | 1918-2008 | Russian writer, who, through his often suppressed writings, helped to raise global awareness of the gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system from 1918 to 1956
"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."
- Ray Bradbury | 1920-2012 | American fantasy, science fiction, horror and mystery fiction writer