Civil Rights Activist Quotes

“Don't let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don't whine. You can be brought low, that's OK, but don't be reduced by them. Just say, 'That's life.'”

“The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.”

“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.”

“We are here to love each other.That is why you are alive.That is what life is for.”

“A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but a woman called by a devaluing name will only be weakened by the misnomer.”

“Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it's right, it's easy. It's the other way round, too. If it's slovenly written, then it's hard to read. It doesn't give the reader what the careful writer can give the reader.”

“You may not remember what a person said to you, you may not remember what a person did to you, but you will never forget how a person made you feel!”

“To be angry is very good. It burns out things and leaves nutrients in the soil. You should always be ready to be angry at injustice and cruelty.”

“Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.”

“A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.”

“In order to win, we pay with energy and effort and discipline. If we lose, we pay in disappointment, discontent, and lack of fulfillment.”

“No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again and bring the dawn.”

“One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential.”

“A certain person wondered why a big strong girl like me wouldn't keep a job which paid a normal salary. I took my time to lead her and to read her every page. Even minimal people can't survive on minimal wage. A certain person wondered why I wait all week for you. I didn't have the words to describe just what you do. I said you had the motion of the ocean in your walk, and when you solve my riddles you don't even have to talk.”

“We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.”

“The music was my friend, my lover, my family.”

“You build your 'COURAGE MUSCLE' daily, by being courageous in little things. Just do right.”

“A story went the rounds about a San Franciscan white matron who refused to sit beside a Negro civilian on the streetcar, even after he made room for her on the seat. Her explanation was that she would not sit beside a draft dodger who was a Negro as well. She added that the least he could do was fight for his country the way her son was fighting on Iwo Jima. The story said that the man pulled his body away from the window to show an armless sleeve. He said quietly and with great dignity, "Then ask your son to look around for my arm, which I left over there.”

“I look at some of the great novelists, and I think the reason they are great is that they're telling the truth. The fact is they're using made-up names, made-up people, made-up places, and made-up times, but they're telling the truth about the human being- what we are capable of, what makes us lose, laugh, weep, fall down, and gnash our teeth and wring our hands and kill each other and love each other.”

“Just as hope rings through laughter, it can also shine through tears.”

“My mother raised me, and then freed me.”

“Be certain that you do not die without having done something wonderful for humanity.”

“Some people cannot see a good thing when it is right here, right now. Others can sense a good thing coming when it is days, months, or miles away.”

“A woman needs someone she can trust, someone who laughs when she laughs, but who has different ideas so she can learn from and teach to them. She needs someone who will stand up with her and encourage her to be a woman-not just a female. See where you are, admit what you know, and what you need, and search for a sister friend.”

“Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.”