Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I've never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known.
I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.
The right wing always mobilizes around constitutional amendments: the right to bear arms, school prayer.
America has to make America become a better place for all Americans, and that`s all of us participating.
If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.
We've got to look toward two years from now [January 2017] to at least provide some balance in congress.
I have the right to express myself. Once we get through expressing, do we really move forward in society.
I think that you can't choose leadership. You have to deal with the leadership that the people respond to.
We blacks had problems in the '60s and we solved them by marching. We've still got problems - let's march.
I can call a march, and thousands come out, and I happen to have access to the White House at the same time.
This is not about what party you're part of. This is about right and wrong, ... the conscience of this nation.
We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution.
National Action Network, the group I founded, has affiliates or chapters in over 40 cities around the country.
Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.
If a cop sees a person running out of a store with a gun he's seeing a crime. He's not seeing a person standing.
I've seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining.
People in the age of [President] Obama don't dress like they did in the age of [Lyndon] Johnson. That's for sure.
We just have to hope and pray that this man [Donald Trump] is changed in terms of how he views the world community.
My ordination in the Church of God in Christ was at age 9, and I later became a Baptist minister, which I am today.
Some issues you just - you certainly you have to defend yourself, but you certainly don`t have to denigrate others.
In every era going back to Lincoln with Frederick Douglass, presidents talk to those that were leading at that time.
James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.
It seems some have chosen to ignore or have simply forgotten the big-picture vision promoted by Dr. King and his kin.
I think first of all, the United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.
One of the reasons I get so much joy out of my own children's childhoods is that I'm having my first childhood myself.
I think you don't support people based on one or two cases of situations. You deal with their balance over the long run.
I think that whoever is the attorney general, you don't want them to be as a yes person for any particular constituency.
I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people. I love theology and some philosophy.
The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.
I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag.
We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.
I've gone from, you know, being too close to politicians, to being too close to entertainers, and people's father that I'm not.
If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can't grandma have a constitutional right to health care?
My ministry's always been one of social activism. I think a responsible minister must be at some levels involved in the social order.
During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.
I`m very cautious about what appears to be things put in place that will begin to roll back some of the progress that I believe we`ve made.
I've learned how to measure what I say. Al Sharpton in 1986 was trying to be heard. I was a local guy and was like, 'Y'all are ignoring us.'
John Lewis being attacked as "talk, talk, talk" by president-elect [Donald] Trump because he said he didn`t consider him a legitimate president.
I think everybody understood what happened, why this consent decree came about after the Freddie Gray situation. There was tension on both sides.
I`m not as concerned about what Mr. [Jeff] Sessions expressed, except for the fact that he did say that, you know, these things would be enforced.
You don't need any indictment in order to arrest someone; probable cause is sufficient to arrest civilians, so it must be enough to arrest police.
While the rest of the country waves the flag of Americana, we understand we are not part of that. We don't owe America anything - America owes us.
I do believe the Democratic party has moved far to the right. I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.
People have a right to be nervous and fearful. They heard what Trump said during the campaign and are wondering if he`ll follow through on his promises.
If the black vote does not come out in big numbers in the age of Ferguson and voter ID, it will empower our adversaries and enhance our marginalization.
If it weren't for the mentorship and guidance from people like my mother, James Brown and others, I wouldn't have been able to make something of my life.
We`re going to continue to move forward and fight. I just think that, unfortunately, the president-elect [Donald Trump] has chosen to address every issue.
But we believed if we kept on working, if we kept on marching, if we kept on voting, if we kept on believing, we would make America beautiful for everybody.
You can't get a solution if you won't talk to the people that have the problem. You can't ever have healing if the patient is left out of the operation room.
All women, regardless of her economic status or racial background, have a right to vote, and no politician or regressive law should prevent her from doing so.