If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.
~ Jesse Jackson
Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.
If my mind can conceive it, My heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it!
I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn't born in me.
Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude.
At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.
We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.
No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.
Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.
You can be out of slavery and have the right to vote, but unless you have access to capital, industry and technology, you can't fulfill your dreams.
Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters.
I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.
A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.
To allow injustice and inequality invites a Ferguson to your community. We must stand together, black, white, brown, red, and yellow and fight for justice and equality for all. It's the only way to avoid more Fergusons.
In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.
So here we are today with a new conversation. When University of Georgia plays Georgia Tech, it's uniform color versus skin color. We have - we've overcome that level of racial fear.
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.
Many kids come out of college, they have a credit card and a diploma. They don't know how to buy a house or a car or health insurance or life insurance. They do not know basic microeconomics.
Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.
Those who write the editorials and those who write the columns, they simply are unaccountable. They're free to impose their cultural politics in the name of freedom of the press.
It is a historical error for those who were not there to just refer to August 28th as 'I Have a Dream' speech day. That is a real disservice to those who were there. It was a sad day. It was not a celebration environment.
I'm too mature to be angry.
Many are observing Ferguson and witnessing the anger, demonstrations, looting and vandalism and calling for quiet. But quiet isn't enough. The absence of noise isn't the presence of justice - and we must demand justice in Ferguson and the other 'Fergusons' around America.
We have to judge politicians by their cumulative score. In one innings they make a great catch, in another they drop the ball. In one they score a home run, in another they strike out. But it is their cumulative batting average that we are interested in.
