Jesse Jackson

“I do not deny the allegation, I deny the allegator.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Most blacks will argue that they excel because of hard work, because of intellect, determination, sweat, blood, tears and risk.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“God doesn’t make orange juice, God makes oranges.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“You cannot teach what you don’t know. You cannot give energy if you’re not on fire on the inside.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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!” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“So many bright stars, bright in life, burn out quickly.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

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

“Surrender had played out for good with me.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“When we’re unemployed, we’re called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it’s called a depression.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“People always grow and mature.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I’m not wasting my time with any more non-straight-talking candidates.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I’m too mature to be angry.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“America needs young people to be inspired to choose sacrifice over greed.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“If you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you need to know who holds tomorrow!” ~ Jesse Jackson

“No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

“What we have to be judged by is the work we try to do. It’s public service, not perfect service.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Our dreams must be stronger than our memories.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“If you run, you might lose. If you don’t run, you’re guaranteed to lose.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Conservatives and liberals can find common ground.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Our premise is that inclusion leads to growth. So for those who are locked out, they lose development, and those who are in power lose market and growth.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I cast my bread on the waters long ago. Now it’s time for you to send it back to me – toasted and buttered on both sides.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“When everyone is included, everyone wins.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

“Each time a barrier falls for one person, the doors of opportunity open wider for every other American.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“Nobody will save us from us but us.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Humanitarian appeals always help. They penetrate deeper than political tradeoffs.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Capitalism without capital is just an ism.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

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

“We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Your children need your presence more than your presents.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“If a black doctor discovers a cure for cancer, ain’t no hospital going to lock him out.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Obama used to be a community organizer. He knows how to build communities.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Our goal was not freedom. Freedom was the necessary prerequisite to get to equality.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps… then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I know they are all environmentalists. I heard a lot of my speeches recycled.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“If you think black people have a motivation problem, open up a Wal-Mart and advertise a thousand jobs. Watch 5,000 people show up.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I want to cut his nuts off.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“Just because a chicken was born in the oven doesn’t make it a biscuit.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

“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

“America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“We reveal our joys and successes, we conceal our pain.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“It is time for us to turn to each other, not on each other.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Peace is the alternative to war, and nonviolence should be seen as the antidote to violence, not simply as its opposite. Nonviolence is more concerned with saving life than with saving face.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“A new leadership. A choice. A chance. Don’t cry about what you don’t have. Use what you got.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“You may choose your mate, but you cannot deny someone else the right to choose their mate.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“People like to say don’t abort, adopt. But I’m saying don’t strip, scholarship.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“You can’t plant a seed and pick the fruit the next morning.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“We must all learn a good lesson – how to live together.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“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

“I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn’t born in me.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

“America is not like a blanket- one piece of unbroken cloth. America is more like a quilt- many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together by a common thread.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“I had to steal to survive.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

“Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“No lie can live forever.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“The ground is no place for a champion. The ground is no place that I will wallow on.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“No one wants to see self-destructive riots because there’s no future in riots.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

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

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

“Choose the human race over the nuclear race. Bury the weapons and don’t burn the people.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“If you wear a hoodie but aren’t registered to vote, you got the symbolism but missed the substance.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“We must know the difference between sweat and tears. Sweat is wet. Tears are wet. Sweat is salty. Tears are salty. But progress comes through sweat. Progress never came through tears.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“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.” ~ Jesse Jackson

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

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

“I hear that melting pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven’t melted.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Gangs are a group reaction to helplessness.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Black and Jewish leaders have been a coalition of conscience.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“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

“Life has its dimensions in the mysterious.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Unfortunate. Unfortunate. Sometimes people struggling for freedom lose their way.” ~ Jesse Jackson

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.” ~ Jesse Jackson