What I do shows people what kind of person I am.

In the no-nonsense school of adversity, which we did not choose for ourselves, we are learning how to operate a labor union.

There is a great fear of our Union - a fear that I do not fully understand, but that I know is present...What is it that causes some men to act so hastily and so cruelly? It cannot be that we are so powerful. Is it so much to ask that the poorest people of the land have a measure of justice?

Nonviolence is really tough. You don't practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.

If you're not frightened that you might fail, you'll never do the job. If you're frightened, you'll work like crazy.

It's ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.