"The life of the union depends upon more people getting to share the limelight, because with the limelight also comes responsibility and with the responsibility comes a little sharing of the load." "There isn't enough money to organize poor people. There never is enough money to organize anyone. If you put it on the basis of money, you're not going to succeed."

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

However important the struggle is and however much misery and poverty and degradation exist, we know that it cannot be more important than one human life.

Talk is cheap...It is the way we organize and use our lives everyday that tells what we believe in.

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

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 is clearly evident that our path travels through a valley of teas well known to all farm workers, because in all valleys the way of the farm worker has bene one of sacrifice for generations. Our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men rich. This Pilgrimage is a witness to the suffering we have seen for generations.