Top 78 Quotes & Sayings by Ayanna Pressley

Plans without price tags are simply pandering.

It's important that people see themselves mirrored in government.

Our immigration system is fundamentally broken, and ICE's role in supporting the existing system - including separating families seeking refuge in the United States and conducting indiscriminate deportation raids in our communities - is creating an atmosphere of toxic fear and mistrust in immigrant communities.

I don't have stars in my eyes. I'm not personally ambitious. I'm very aspirational.

There's many law changes, policy changes I can point to. But a lot of my work has also been to name the issue that no one else named - to spotlight it, to advocate for it. That's where all advocacy begins. I've asked different questions. I've raised different issues.

At some point or another, everyone has felt unseen and unheard and marginalized.

I used to turn in, like, 20 money orders to pay my rent - $20 for this one, $30 for this one. I didn't have a checking account.

Thanks to my mother's sacrifices, I was able to attend one of the best schools in Chicago.

Bad influences and distractions were around every corner. But I also learned that my neighborhood could be a nurturing, positive place to grow up.

If the power was equitable, then our boards, then our commissions, our contracting, our wealth-building opportunities would all look very different.

If elected, I will work with federal leaders to rehouse the non-immigration enforcement functions of ICE - including human trafficking and money laundering investigations - elsewhere in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security while immediately eliminating funding for enforcement and removal functions.

From drug companies to health insurers to Wall Street banks, big corporations are spending millions to buy influence in Washington and drown out the voices of regular people.

True enough, Trump is a formidable foe, and systemic inequalities and disparities are worsening under this administration. But they existed long before that. And I want to lead, organize, and legislate to disrupt these disparate outcomes.

My mother informed me that the way to be a change agent to create change, the first line of defense, or however you want to phrase that, is politics and government.

We make a mistake when we stereotype neighborhoods as 'bad' and not worth our attention or investment.

I happen to be black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both, but that is not the totality of my identity.

People entrust me with the responsibility of actualizing our shared values and, that said, I'm not in the business of going to try to convert people and getting their buy-in. I just do the work.

Since being elected to the City Council, I have been unwavering in my commitment to address issues uniquely impacting women and girls and advance policies that stabilize and strengthen our communities.

At the women's march, we held signs that said, 'Today we march, tomorrow we run.' They didn't believe us, but it's coming to pass.

My life as an advocate for those most in need is inspired by my mother's example. She believed in the potential inherent in each of us, and that belief is the foundation of my work.

We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform in this nation, and yes, comprehensive immigration reform proposals are nuanced and complicated, but you know what shouldn't be? Our capacity to see each other's humanity.

My mother lost her job, so I left school to work full-time to support her.

I will sit at the table and compromise with anyone in the name of progress, but there are things I'm not willing to compromise and negotiate on, and that is the rights of women, of immigrants, of workers, and of the LGBTQIA community.

I'm not naive. All politics is about identity, right? Neighborhood politics, cultural politics, issue politics. It's not as though I don't get that. It's just - it has to be, I think, tempered in a way that is for our overall advancement and not to our detriment or obliteration. When I say 'our,' I don't mean just communities of color.

We must acknowledge that issues like systemic racism, economic inequality, and the achievement gap are the result of manmade policies.

My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead.

In Washington, we need to pass a clean DREAM Act.

Not everyone is granted the opportunity that each of us deserves: to fulfill our God-given potential.

I've just kept going, like millions of people do every day, because life does not allow them to do anything else.

Ultimately, we will never have a more inclusive and representative delegation - we will not change the complexion, the culture, or the representation - if we do not primary Democrats.

I am probably an outsider because I challenge conventional narratives about who should have a seat at the table.

I think culture is a very challenging thing to reverse.

I think people want to live in a city that is welcoming and inclusive. I don't think people want to feel that they can only go into a place with a rainbow flag in front.

I would not invest in a Trump hate wall. We don't need to be protected from immigrants that are coming here seeking asylum and refuge.

There's something to be said for perseverance.

I've not been a decisively re-elected city councilor and top vote-getter three times because I haven't done the work and because I don't work hard.

My priority will remain supporting those courageous individuals and organizations, among both Israelis and Palestinians, committed to bringing peaceful coexistence to the region.

Race is a factor in everything.

I've always had a love affair with Boston.

I knew I would be demonized as entitled and what no woman can ever be: ambitious.

When I hear 'politics,' I hear 'relationships.'

I'm an only child, so I don't come from a big family. But it has been my observation from friends who do come from big families that usually, when you have a family fight, on the back end you come out better and stronger for it.

I'm an only child. My mother was raising me alone. We couldn't afford child care; child care hours didn't work according to her schedule.

I am black and a woman and unapologetically proud to be both. But I've never asked anyone to vote for me because I'm black and a woman.

Making progress on longstanding challenges requires a different lens and a new approach.

Let me be abundantly clear: I am black, and I am a woman, and I embrace both of those facts.

Because boys tend to dominate the narrative for who's at risk, sometimes they dominate the lion's share of services, too.

I'm very confident about my ability to earn votes in every neighborhood.

When I was growing up, 'Ebony Magazine' was a must read in our household. In those pages I found our news, our stories, and my pride.

We should be uncomfortable with the growing gaps in our society, and we cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these injustices.

I have been really furious about the constant charges being lobbed against me about identity politics that, by the way, are only lobbed against women and candidates of color.

I never thought I had the monopoly on struggle or suffering.

Just as every animal is part of a kingdom, phylum, class, and order, every Dorchester resident has a parish, school, park, and neighborhood that they identify with.

We need a permanent solution to TPS recipients and develop a path to citizenship. And, more fundamentally, we need to ensure that our immigration policies treat those coming to this country with the dignity and compassion that should be afforded to all human beings and immediately stop tearing families apart.

We want Boston to be the safest bicycling city.

As I have always said, those closest to the pain should be closest to the power.

I understand and appreciate and respect that any time a barrier is broken or history is made, people want to celebrate it and mark it as progress.

An increase in bicycle ridership brings an increased need for measures to ensure the safety of cyclists.

You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people.

Players who take a knee during the national anthem do so to protest injustice across the country - fulfilling a patriotic duty to never accept injustice, but to call it out when we see it.