Marian Wright Edelman Quotes
-
If we think we have ours and don't owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans and the very dream that is America.
-
The poor have been sent to the front lines of a federal budget deficit reduction war that few other groups were drafted to fight.
-
I'm doing what I think I was put on this earth to do. And I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about and that I think is profoundly important.
-
Democracy cannot breathe, indeed will die, if those enjoined to protect it and uphold the laws snuff it out - with no consequences.
-
I try to act out of faith.
-
There are so many noises and pulls and competing demands in our lives that many of us never find out who we are. Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in other people.
-
It really takes a community to raise children, no matter how much money one has. Nobody can do it well alone. And it's the bedrock security of community that we and our children need.
-
We're spending, on average, three times more for prison than for public-school pupils. That's the dumbest investment policy. It doesn't make us safer.
-
Children cannot lobby and cannot vote. We must speak for them.
-
Don't wait for, expect, or rely on favors. Count on earning them by hard work and perseverance.
-
If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.
-
Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.
-
Children don't vote but adults who do must stand up and vote for them.
-
We are not going to deal with the violence in our communities, our homes, and our nation, until we learn to deal with the basic ethic of how we resolve our disputes and to place an emphasis on peace in the way we relate to one another.
-
I don't care what my children choose to do professionally, just as long as within their choices they understand they've got to give something back.
-
We're a violent nation, and we need to confront it. This gun plague has to stop.
-
It's the new slavery. It came out of the drug laws and it really is something we're going to have to confront, but I don't see enough people up in arms about that. We need to be.
-
You really can change the world if you care enough.
-
A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything and will not stand tall in the future.
-
Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.
-
It is [children] who are God's presence, promise and hope for mankind.
-
Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right.
-
You were born God's original. Try not to become someone's copy.
-
We all need to get out of our safety zones too. In addition to voting, we need to embarrass people who don't do the right thing. It's going to take citizen action.