Top 50 Wes Moore Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We’re not products of our environments, we’re products of our expectations.”

— Wes Moore

2. “Potential is universal. Opportunity is not.”

— Wes Moore

3. “The expectations that others place on us help us form our expectations of ourselves.”

— Wes Moore

4. “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

5. “Kids need to think that you care before they care what you think.”

— Wes Moore

6. “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.”

— Wes Moore

7. “Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount. Knowing when to fight and when to seek peace is wisdom.”

— Wes Moore

8. “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 than not a single moment be wasted.”

— Wes Moore

9. “Failing doesn’t make us a failure. But not trying to do better, to be better, does make us fools.”

— Wes Moore

10. “The importance of education plays a huge role.”

— Wes Moore

11. “Service simply means we embrace the possibility of living for more than ourselves.”

— Wes Moore

12. “I guess it’s hard sometimes to distinguish between second chances and last chances.”

— Wes Moore

13. “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

14. “Fighting for your convictions is important. But finding peace is paramount.”

— Wes Moore

15. “I learned that the way 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

16. “I just want to do as much as I can while I can, because none of us are promised anything.”

— Wes Moore

17. “And I spent a lot of time hurting people who loved me just so I could impress people who didn’t even care about me.”

— Wes Moore

18. “Maybe the question isn’t “What do I want to do with my life?” but “Who do I want to be? What contribution do I want to make?” It’s not even all about altruism. It’s also about living the life that keeps you interested and engaged and passionate – and that leaves you feeling fulfilled. When.”

— Wes Moore

19. “Heroism is simply the idea of living your life with the passion that it deserves.”

— Wes Moore

20. “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

21. “My mother is extraordinary; she’s a superwoman, like so many other single mothers who are out there.”

— Wes Moore

22. “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

23. “Young boys are more likely to believe in themselves if they know that there’s someone, somewhere, who shares that belief. To carry the burden of belief alone is too much for most young shoulders.”

— Wes Moore

24. “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and it’s the rare person who can walk away from what feels like a sure thing.”

— Wes Moore

25. “The young men in our city are not problems to be solved. They are opportunities to be unleashed.”

— Wes Moore

26. “I began at some point to understand the whole idea of accountability and responsibility and leadership, and I think that was something that really birthed something in me, where I knew I wanted to be part of a larger equation in our society.”

— Wes Moore

27. “Our adult lives begin with a first moment of stillness. We leave school and there’s no next grade to go to, no one to tell us how to spend our time – we are faced with an intimidating absence of inevitable next steps. Possibilities and choices suddenly abound. And for a lot of us it’s terrifying.”

— Wes Moore

28. “Wes wanted to be just like Tony. Tony wanted Wes to be nothing like him.”

— Wes Moore

29. “As my sister used to eloquently put it, our mother wore sweaters so we could wear coats.”

— Wes Moore

30. “Poverty is so concentrated because it is generational and, research shows, created with relentless intention.”

— Wes Moore

31. “Boredom in teenage boys is a powerful motivation to create chaos.”

— Wes Moore

32. “They hit you with a knife, you find a gun.”

— Wes Moore

33. “My father had been my Moses, bringing me to life. Then my grandfather became my Joshua, carrying me through my childhood and teen years into adulthood.”

— Wes Moore

34. “Just stand next to the white people. They’ll get off by Hundred and Tenth Street.” Justin broke down his strategy for securing a seat as we shoved ourselves onto the crowded Number 2 train heading uptown.”

— Wes Moore

35. “Some critics will counter that poverty is a choice made by those that are lazy or who lack the desire to change their loves for the better. I agree that poverty is a choice. But that choice is not made by the people who live under its oppressive effects. Rather, the choice is ours. It’s the choice of government that represents our priorities and allocates our investments. Its a choice reinforced by the companies we patronize and the organizations we support.”

— Wes Moore

36. “I just want to make sure that public service doesn’t have to be an occupation, but it needs to be a way of life.”

— Wes Moore

37. “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

38. “In the United States, we see these same faces, and our reflex is to pick up our pace and cross the street. And in this reflexive gesture, the dimensions of our tragedy are laid bare.”

— Wes Moore

39. “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

40. “One thing I began to realize in my travels was that everyone I met who was truly successful – whether in business, in philanthropic work, in human rights, in government, or in raising a family – shared one common trait: they were fanatically passionate about the work they did.”

— Wes Moore

41. “I’m not a warmonger – like many who have worn the uniform, I am particularly averse to war. I’m also not someone who believes in empire building or imperialistic or paternalistic attitudes about the world outside of America. But our passion, influence, and responsibility as humans can never end at our borders.”

— Wes Moore

42. “With every step on those cracked sidewalks, I passed a new signifier of urban decay. But I didn’t even realize it. I was a kid, and just happy to get out of the house. The people I passed would look me up and down, and I would look back, give the traditional head nod, and then go back to practicing my crossover dribble.”

— Wes Moore

43. “But really, where leadership is born and where leadership is really bred is...”

— Wes Moore

44. “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

45. “Our society’s insistence on limiting help to those who “deserve it,” as indicated by their status in the labor market, has a profound impact on the capacity of those living in deep poverty to escape... we also cannot defend the inhumane debate about who are the deserving versus the undeserving poor.”

— Wes Moore

46. “I want to live an interesting life.”

— Wes Moore

47. “After my time working for the government as a soldier, I reacquainted myself with the possibilities of government as a force for good beyond its awesome capacity as a force in war and security.”

— Wes Moore

48. “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

49. “Abdullah explained to me the man had not understood the significance of the image on the flag, so Abdullah told him it was a picture of Afghanistan – a picture of his country. At that, the man had shrugged and walked away. That’s when I started to understand that our goal of establishing loyalty to a national government was possibly in trouble.”

— Wes Moore

50. “What need can I best help address?”

— Wes Moore