Jesse Jackson famous quotes

If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Running #Giving Up #Philosophical

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#People #Justice #Together

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

#Brother #Struggle #Meaning Of Life

No one wants to see self-destructive riots because there's no future in riots.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Self #Want #Self Destructive

Your children need your presence more than your presents.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Birthday #Family #Christmas

People like to say don't abort, adopt. But I'm saying don't strip, scholarship.
-- Jesse Jackson

#People #Scholarship

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Sympathy #Sweat #Effort

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Airplane #Technology #Bully

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

#Symbolism #Substance #Vote

Coming into World War II, we were seen as a conquering hero for beleaguered people, we are now seen as invader, an occupier. And what that is saying is we have more might than right, so we kind of have a kind of moral deficit disorder. And that's why a leader must lift us back to the higher ground, because at the end of the day what makes you strong is that you are believable, that as significant as might is, ultimately right is even stronger than might.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Strong #War #Hero

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Dream #Government #Goal

Iraq will drive American agenda for a long time because Iraq policy has so damaged America in the Middle East region, left us isolated. We are there now by brute strength, we are not there because we are desired.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Iraq #America #Long

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Inspiring #Graduation #Softball

The question becomes what kind of coalition can we build that will make a transition and empower the people of Iraq? The American soldiers' presence there is an act of provocation. There's a big red ball on the back of every American soldier in that country, so our being there contributes to the crisis, it does not resolve the crisis.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Country #Iraq #People

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Quilts #Native American #Gay

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

#Iraq #Occupation #Invasion

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!
-- Jesse Jackson

#Dream #Winning #Men

We are organising our enemies into a formidable force, we are The US public has turned against the war, the Republicans and Democrats have turned against the war. And so when the American public turns against the war and the Congress turns against the war, it suggests that Americans feel we cannot win that war in those conditions. So the Iraqi Commission says, "Well, we can't win this war militarily, we need to reassess potential allies." There's Syria, there's Iran.
-- Jesse Jackson

#War #Winning #Iran

Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Change #Sweat #Tears

When we were hit on 9/11 it took us a few weeks to get the coalition together because [George] Bush had come in with a kind of narrow ideology, looking at the world, I'd say, through a keyhole and not through a door.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Doors #Together #World

You cannot teach what you don't know. You cannot give energy if you're not on fire on the inside.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Teacher #Fire #Giving

We made this inexplicable turn into Iraq, where we've lost lives, money, honour and the coalition on [George] Bush's watch. Surely he's not suggesting that if the Democrats win, things can get worse. I mean, all we can do now is to look at our field policy and change the course. We need more diplomatic outreach toward Iran, Syria and Middle Eastern allies, and less bluster and less threats, and fewer troops.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Mean #Winning #Iraq

I'm too mature to be angry.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Mature #Angry

We must all learn a good lesson - how to live together. That is the new challenge of the new world... learning to co-exist and not co-annihilate.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Challenges #Together #World

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

#Inspirational #Motivational #Spiritual

Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet
-- Jesse Jackson

#Opportunity #Preparation #Luck

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

#Motivational #Kindness #May

We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Motivational #Dream #Black History

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

#Justice #Melting #Stuff

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Thinking #White #Issues

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 . . .
-- Jesse Jackson

#Children #Night #People

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

#Hope #Morning #Dark

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

#Inspiring #Looks #Helping

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

#Morning #Next #Fruit

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Political #Soul #Democracy

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Attitude #Believe #Dope

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Leadership #Courage #Time

When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Opportunity #Swings #Doors

It is time for us to turn to each other, not on each other.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Life #Turns

At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Fear #The End Of The Day #Division

America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Color #America #Diversity

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Inspirational #Life #Respect

A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Men #Reality #Justice

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Leadership #Jobs #Business

In tough economic times, desperate people do desperate things, and the abortion rate goes up.
-- Jesse Jackson

#People #Abortion #Tough

Race designation is a political designation.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Race #Political

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Strong #Pain #Mistake

From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Flower #People #History

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Airplane #Blow #Gun

In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Freedom #Political #Democracy

Few would deny that blacks have become very dominant in athletics: football, basketball, track, now dominant in tennis and dominant in golf.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Basketball #Football #Golf

I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn't born in me.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Born #Slums

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Kids #College #Car

Unfortunate. Unfortunate. Sometimes people struggling for freedom lose their way.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Struggle #People #Way

Abortion is black genocide...What happens to the mind of a person and the moral fabric of a nation that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?
-- Jesse Jackson

#Baby #Abortion #Mind

We went across the South on Super Tuesday without a single catcall or boo, without a single ugly sign. Not until we got to New York and the North did the litmus test of race and religion spout from the mouths of public officials.
-- Jesse Jackson

#New York #Race #Tuesday

Workers, black and white, need some kind of international affirmative action to protect them from unfair competition with unorganized or slave labor abroad and unfair competition with robots at home.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Home #Black And White #Competition

When it came to the division of power, we did not get from the Jews the slice of cake we deserved... the Jews do not share with us control of wealth, broadcasting stations and other centers of power.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Cake #Division #Wealth

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

#Israel #Want

If whites would vote their economic interests, not their racial fears, we the people who have the most need for change have the power to bring about that change nonviolently.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Racism #People #Needs

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

#Words Of Wisdom #Trying #May

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

#Goal #Black History #Black

A man must be willing to die for...
-- Jesse Jackson

#Men #African American #Willing

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Black History #Glory #Achieve

If you run, you might lose. If you don't run, you're guaranteed to lose.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Running #Political #Might

I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Use #Killing #Infant

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

#Dream #America #Get Better

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

#Fighting #World #Bells

God doesn't make orange juice, God makes oranges.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Orange #Juice

If I were a white candidate, I'd have won the Democratic nomination.
-- Jesse Jackson

#White #Nominations #Democratic

I do not deny the allegation, I deny the allegator.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Liberty #Deny #Allegations

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Jobs #Fighting #White

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.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Children #Needs #Way

Hymies." And "Hymietown.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Racist

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

#Jobs #Revenge #Done

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

#Politics #Desperate #Disrespected

Surrender had played out for good with me.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Letting Go #Surrender

You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes. But don't stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age and unwinnable.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Love #Dream #War

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

#Inspirational Life #Birth

Let nothing and nobody break your spirit. Let the unity in the community remain intact.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Inspirational #Change #Community

A new leadership. A choice. A chance. Don't cry about what you don't have. Use what you got.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Choices #Use #Chance

Pictures can live in one's memory. That's why they are important.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Memories #Important

Just because a chicken was born in the oven doesn't make it a biscuit.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Biscuits #Chickens #Born

Our flag is read, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbown-red, yellow, brown, black and white - and we're all precious in God's sight.
-- Jesse Jackson

#God #Black And White #Yellow

I preach nonviolence because it's the better alternative.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Alternatives #Nonviolence

If I can make it, you can make it.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Inspiration #Slogans

The white Christian church never raised to the heights of Christ. It stayed within the limit of culture.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Christian #White #Racism

Gangs are a group reaction to helplessness.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Groups #Youth #Gang

Black men of integrity cannot make a deal with a politician and leave out the poor of the nation, all God's children.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Children #Integrity #Men

I want to make America better!
-- Jesse Jackson

#America #Want

When we do in Grenada what the Soviet Union did in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, we lose moral authority and credibility.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Unions #Moral #Authority

If the states had to vote on slavery, we would have lost the vote.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Slavery #Vote #Lost

If you don't feel apologetic for slavery, if you don't feel apologetic for colonialism, if you feel proud of it then say that.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Colonialism #Slavery #Proud

Those who have the most wealth and the most property, their children have the first, the best, and the most.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Children #Firsts #Wealth

We must all learn a good lesson - how to live together.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Together #Lessons

While I've spent a lot of quality time with my children, perhaps it's not been enough.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Children #Quality #Enough

If the American people in a matter of months can love the people of Kuwait, whom they have not seen, they can love the people of our nation's capital just as well.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Kuwait #People #Matter

The crisis is not an opportunity to change the character of Louisiana's political order. We must not use the crisis to turn Louisiana into a red state -- this is a rainbow state.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Character #Opportunity #Order

Those in blue suits who use thinly veiled race symbols -- when they say welfare and crime and three strikes and anti- affirmative action -- they are sending messages more profound their language.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Race #Blue #Profound

We need a regime change in this country.... If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority.
-- Jesse Jackson

#Country #Iraq #Needs