WIST

Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter
(Attributed)

Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did.

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter
An Unfinished Woman (1969)

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter
The Little Foxes, Act I (1939)

For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt.

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter
The Watch on the Rhine (1941)

I am not willing, now or in the future, to bring bad trouble to people who, in my past association with them, were completely innocent of any talk or any action that was disloyal or subversive. I do not like subversion or disloyalty in any form and if I had ever seen any I would have considered it my duty to have reported it to the proper authorities. But to hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group.

Lillian Hellman (1906-1987) American playwright, screenwriter
Letter to Rep. John S. Wood, House Committee on Un-American Activities (19 May 1952)