Top 277 Quotes & Sayings by Jesse Jackson - Page 3

Those companies that don't see the black and brown communities are missing, out of their closed eye, talent, which leads to money and growth. When baseball, football and basketball couldn't see the field, they missed talent and growth. The same is true in the tech industry.

When journalists and politicians speak of a dwindling middle class that's under economic assault and a poor community that's getting bigger, they're talking about Ferguson. Independent of the racial demographics and dynamics of Ferguson, Missouri, there's a 'Ferguson' near you.

Republicans are the party of 'no,' and Democrats are the party of 'don't know' because it hasn't fought for bold ideas, policies, or plans to turn us in a new direction.

That Obama I would like to cut his nuts off.

Most poor people are not on welfare. . . I know they work. I'm a witness. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people's children. They work every day. They clean the streets. They work every day. They drive vans with cabs. They work every day. They change beds you slept in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract. They work every day . . .

Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change.

I am - Somebody. I may be poor, but I am - Somebody! I may be on welfare, but I am - Somebody! I may be uneducated, but I am - Somebody! I must be, I'm God's child. I must be respected and protected. I am black and I am beautiful! I am - Somebody! Soul Power!

We are facing a stiff wind right now, but if we persist and keep fighting back, we will prevail.

We must face the No. 1 critical issue of our day. It is youth crime in general and black-on-black crime in particular. There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved. After all we have been through, just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating.

We picked their cotton. We cooked their food. We nursed their babies. Now we can run their cities. We can run their states. We will run the country.

The only time you should look down at someone, is when you are helping them up.

Unfortunate. Unfortunate. Sometimes people struggling for freedom lose their way.

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.

Politicians refuse to modernize schools, they cut out midnight basketball, but build all these new jails. First class jails, second class schools. This is zero tolerance.

When everyone is included, everyone wins.

The only justification we have to look down on someone is because we are about to pick him up.

There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.

When God rang the bell that ended the fight, the world cried out for one more round.

If you and I got on an airplane, you're going to L.A., Los Angeles, and I'm going to Senegal, we get there about the same time. The world is just that small. So a world that is so tightly bound by science and technology and now Internet and the web page, that world is too small for bullies. It has no room in that world for arrogance.

We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.

The crown jewel of Dr. King`s movement was to protect the right to vote for all citizens.

It is in struggle and service with our brothers and sisters, individually and collectively, that we find the meaning of life.

That's all Hymie wants to talk about is Israel. Every time you go to Hymietown that's all they want to talk about.

No lie can live forever.

You can't plant a seed and pick the fruit the next morning.

You can't teach what you don't know. And you can't lead where you don't go.

The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.

We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date.

If you wear a hoodie but aren't registered to vote, you got the symbolism but missed the substance.

The trouble is that nonviolence is so often defined as refusal to fight, and that is the American definition of cowardice. In fact, marching unarmed against the guns and dogs of the police requires more courage than does aggression. The perverted idea of manhood coming from the barrel of a gun is what keeps people from understanding nonviolence.

When I came here, I put my hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. I didn't put my hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.

I hear that melting pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

You know, people'd always ask "Why is Jesse Jackson running for the White House?" They never seen the house I'm running from.

We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up. Jesus said that we should not be judged by the bark we wear but by the fruit that we bear. Jesus said that we must measure greatness by how we treat the least of these.

His foreparents came to America in immigrant ships. My foreparents came to America in slave ships. But whatever the original ships, we are both in the same boat tonight.

What's good for the very rich might not be good for anybody but them.

The liberation of Blacks is not for Blacks only.

It's not enough to be quiet. Quietness is the absence of noise. We need peace, the presence of justice and to be - and so people here can coexist and live together.

Dream big dreams! Others may deprive you of your material wealth and cheat you in a thousand ways, but no man can deprive you of the control and use of your imagination. Men may deal with you unfairly, as men often do; they may deprive you of your liberty; but they cannot take from you the privilege of using your imagination. In your imagination you always win!

The invasion only made matters worse. The occupation will not work, Iraq is unoccupiable, that will not work.

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high.

has done a great job walking a thin line between revenge and remedy.

Race designation is a political designation.

You may not be responsible for being down, but you must be responsible for getting up.

Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.

If you try you may fail, if you don't try you're guaranteed to fail.

Our goal was not freedom. Freedom was the necessary prerequisite to get to equality.

Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. And in the end, faith will not disappoint. Faith, hope, and dreams will prevail... Our time has come. Our time has come. Our time has come.

The only justification for ever looking down on somebody is to pick them up.

The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved, indeed.

Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet

Semi-automatic weapons are not just about gun control, they're about national security. You know that these weapons can shoot down airplanes, they can blow up railroads. This is really a whole national security issue.

Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites -- rather than fighting for jobs or education -- fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.

That's just like America. It's made up of lots of different people. We're all different colors, different ages, we do different jobs -- but it takes all of us black people, white people, brown people, men and women, young and old, working in the factories, working in the fields, working in offices, working in stores -- it takes a lot of different kinds of people to get the job done for America.

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. Your children need your presence more than your presents.

Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

When I first went to jail in 1960 with seven classmates trying to use their public library against the backdrop of my father being a veteran of World War II, not being able to use - having to sit behind Nazi on American military bases, I lost my fear of jails and death.

The charges that I am anti-Semitic are simply erroneous, felonious, and unceremonious. In fact, when I need a doctor, I always look for one with a Jewish name.

Everywhere I go, kids walk around not with books under their arms, but with radios up against their heads. Children can't read or write, but they can memorize whole albums.

God doesn't make orange juice, God makes oranges.