Jesse Jackson Quotes

Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.

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

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.

Negroes' problem is that they do not have their egos. That's why our churches end up having a white service, because our preacher is not arrogant enough to take God's word, so he have to go and get some white fellow's agenda and put it in his church.

I had to steal to survive.

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? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have twenty years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth.

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

So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent.

The US must be the honest broker between the Israelis and the Palestinians. America needs to be to both of them what neither could be to the other: a trusted brokering partner. It is in their interest and our interest for America to play that role.

The laws are stacked for the wealthy.

Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters.

President Obama projects a strong offense, but he faces a rebellious Congress focused on state's rights.

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

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.

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

I do not deny the allegation, I deny the allegator.

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.

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

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

In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

I'm not wasting my time with any more non-straight-talking candidates.

The wiping out of millions of homes took away Black and Brown wealth. It drove poverty, it drove unemployment, it drove people to food stamps.

When blacks are unemployed, they are considered lazy and apathetic. When whites are unemployed, it's considered a depression.

There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism.

[Donald Trump] said it`s against affordable health care for poor people and will not fight to raise wages for working poor people, that`s pushing all of them in terms of policy.

I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.

In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.

My very first recollection of life on earth was waking up in bed with my mother, and she was showing me a picture of my father, Charles Jackson, with a group of soldiers.

The more you focus on sex without love, and drugs and violence, lifestyle of intimidation and recycling, the less energy you spend on opening up the big tent.

At the end of the day, we're defined by our predicament, not by the sides of town.

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

I think reconciliation is Obama's goal - but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and he will keep giving. They have not seen a stiff resistance on his part.

I take my role seriously as a pastor.

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.

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

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

The fact is in a city like Chicago, for example, unemployment in the black community is around 20 percent for adults, 35 percent for youth, they bail out the banks, public schools, there is a deep divide. We need a plan for reconstruction and redevelopment and I hope that - police are the gatekeepers but behind that gate are these problems of disparities and injustice.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

When I was a boy we were poor and we had to make do with what we had. So my grandma used to make us quits that we used for blankets. She couldn't afford to go to the store and buy a blanket -- so she'd take scraps of cloth and sew them together. there'd be different colors and different patterns and different types of cloth -- but they all went together to make that big quilt to keep us warm.

I know they are all environmentalists. I heard a lot of my speeches recycled.

You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.

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

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.

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

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.

Hymies." And "Hymietown.

I had gained a greater appreciation of hearing the concerns of woman, doctors, and so many others.

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.