Marian Wright Edelman Quotes
-
A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.
-
Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better.
-
As [Martin Luther] King said, it never cost anybody a dime to integrate the lunch counters. When you start talking about trying to deal with jobs and hunger and things that require investment, then that's really the tough stuff, because everybody wants to do right if it doesn't cost them anything.
-
In my generation, we learned how to be leaders by being exposed to and involved with adults who empowered us and gave us a sense that we could choose things. We've let down the generations coming behind us and we are trying to re- establish that connection.
-
I hadn't planned on going to law school. I wanted to study 19th-century Russian literature.
-
Let all children come unto me.
-
[Martin Luther ] King didn't pick his leadership position. Most movements are not started by single people.
-
Hope is the best contraceptive.
-
It is time for every one of us to roll up our sleeves and put ourselves at the top of our commitment list.
-
God, please help us remember that all the darkness in the world cannot snuff out the light of one little candle. Help us to keep lighting our little candles until a mighty torch of justice sweeps our nation and the world.
-
Don't assume a door is closed; push on it. Don't assume if it was closed yesterday that it is closed today. Don't ever stop learning and improving your mind. If you do, you're going to be left behind.
-
You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.
-
In every seed of good there is always a piece of bad.
-
I wasn't thinking about history. I was thinking about how we were going to end segregation at lunch counters in Atlanta, Georgia.We would have never thought about making history, we just thought: Here is our chance to get out our sense of rejection at this kind of racial discrimination. I don't know that there was a time that anybody growing up in the South wasn't enraged about being segregated and being discriminated against.
-
If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.
-
Education remains one of the black community's most enduring values. It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence.
-
Every child’s life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it.
-
Why are guns the only unregulated consumer products in America? We regulate toy guns and teddy bears, but we do not regulate a product that kills 4,600 children a year.
-
I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do.
-
It is utterly exhausting being Black in America - physically, mentally, and emotionally. While many minority groups and women feel similar stress, there is no respite or escape from your badge of color.
-
No time is ever wasted if you have a book along as a companion.
-
Justice is not cheap. Justice is not quick. It is not ever finally achieved.
-
The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; it is whether we can afford not to.
-
Don't just dream about grandiose acts of doing good. Every day do small ones, that add up over time to positive patterns.