John Lewis Quotes

“You have to tell the whole truth, the good and the bad, maybe some things that are uncomfortable for some people.”

“The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.”

“My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers.”

“Our struggle is a struggle to redeem the soul of America. It's not a struggle that lasts for a few days, a few weeks, a few months, or a few years. It is the struggle of a lifetime, more than one lifetime.”

“For a person [like John Lewis] that is a champion of voter rights to question whether or not Donald Trump legitimately won an election or not is an incredible position to take five days before an inauguration.”

“I'm very hopeful. I am very optimistic about the future.”

“This man [ Donald Trump] won in an electoral landslide.”

“I'm gonna say that I have followed every presidential campaign since the campaign of President [John F.] Kennedy in 1960.”

“To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.”

“Well, what Cory Booker and John Lewis are right about is to talk about the racist past of Donald Trump.”

“Sometimes I hear people saying, 'Nothing has changed.' Come and walk in my shoes.”

“We live in a country where we're supposed to have freedom of the press and religious freedom, but I think to some degree, there's a sense of fear in America today, that if you say the wrong thing, what some people will consider what is wrong, if you step out of line, if you dissent, whether you be an entertainer, that somehow and some way this government or the forces to be will come down on you.”

“I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century. It's time to lay it down. We all came here in different ships, but now we're all in the same boat.”

“We should be creative, and we should accommodate the needs of every community to open up the democratic process. We should make it easy and accessible for every citizen to participate.”

“There is a need for a movement of non-violent direct action.”

“Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we've come and the progress we've made.”

“Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.”

“You have to have the capacity and the ability to take what people did, and how they did it, and forgive them and move on.”

“I think all Americans should be hopeful, and try to be optimistic.”

“What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.”

“Listening to Dr. King on the radio inspired me. Coming under the influence of Jim Lawson inspired me to think that I, too, could do something.”

“We built a coalition of conscience, and that we can do it again, and we can go forward, and help redeem the soul of America.”

“I think right now, the focus has got to be on how we hold [Donald] Trump accountable.”

“It is my hope that people today will see that, in another time, in another period, when we saw the need for people to speak up, to organize, to mobilize, and to do something about injustice, we came together.”

“I would say to a young person: continue to study. Study what is taking place in your community, in your neighborhood, maybe at your school.”