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

When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression.
Jesse Jackson

Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites -- rather than fighting for jobs or education -- fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.
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

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

Never look down on anybody unless you helping him up.
Jesse Jackson

Your children need your presence more than your presents.
Jesse Jackson

A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.
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

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

From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation.
Jesse Jackson

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

Capitalism without capital is just an ism.
Jesse Jackson

George Bush has met more foreign heads of state than I have. But a substantial number of them were dead.
Jesse Jackson

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

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

George Bush has met more foreign heads of state than I have. But a substantial number of them were dead.
Jesse Jackson

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

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

We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date.
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

Pictures can live in one's memory. That's why they are important.
Jesse Jackson

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

Keep hope alive!
Jesse Jackson

I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.
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

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.
Jesse Jackson

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

Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rather than pushed by our memories.
Jesse Jackson

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

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

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

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.
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, The Rainbow Coalition

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, The Rainbow Coalition

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and we're all precious in God's sight.
Jesse Jackson, Speech, 16 July 1984

America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.
Jesse Jackson, 1988 Democratic National Convention Address

America is not like a blanket-one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America is more like a quilt-many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread.
Jesse Jackson, Address to the Democratic Convention Jul 17, 1984

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.
Jesse Jackson, 1984 Democratic National Convention Address

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.
Jesse Jackson, 1984 Democratic National Convention Address

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, 1984 Democratic National Convention Address

Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive. Don't you surrender! Suffering breeds character, character breeds faith. In the end faith will not disappoint.
Jesse Jackson, Keep Hope Alive

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, Dream of Things as They Ought to Be