"If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it."
Read quote
431 likes
Quote collection
John Lewis quotes (page 1 of 6)
120 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage."
Read quote
288 likes
"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."
Read quote
241 likes
"Young people can understand, and must understand, that we had success, we had failures, but we never gave up. We never gave in. We never became bitter. We didn't hate. We continued to press on. And that's what we're saying: There are some ups, there are some downs, and when you're not down, you must have the capacity and the ability to get up and keep going."
Read quote
211 likes
"We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us."
Read quote
188 likes
"I thought I was going to die a few times. On the Freedom Ride in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7th, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a State Trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death, but nothing can make me question the philosophy of nonviolence."
Read quote
182 likes
"When people tell me nothing has changed, I say come walk in my shoes and I will show you change."
Read quote
163 likes
"I met Rosa Parks when I was 17. I met Dr. [Martin Luther] King when I was 18. These two individuals inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble. So I got in good trouble, necessary trouble."
Read quote
161 likes
"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."
Read quote
149 likes
"If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if your consistent, you will succeed"
Read quote
138 likes
"We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We've come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself."
Read quote
135 likes
"I say from time to time that the vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society. And we must use it."
Read quote
129 likes
"Don`t give up! Don`t give in! Keep the faith! And keep your eyes on the prize!"
Read quote
84 likes
"You cannot give up - you have to be persistent and keep pushing, and press on."
Read quote
77 likes
"I truly believe that one day we will get there, we will arrive. And if we do it right in America, maybe, just maybe, we can serve as a model for the rest of the world."
Read quote
74 likes
"I have fought too hard and for too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I've heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry."
Read quote
66 likes
"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."
Read quote
66 likes
"We will stand up for what is right, for what is fair and what is just. Health care is a right and not a privilege."
Read quote
58 likes
"Even in the civil rights movement, there were so many unbelievable women. They never, ever received the credit that they should have received. They did all of the, and I cannot say it, they did all of the dirty work. Hard work."
Read quote
51 likes
"We never gave up. We didn't get lost in a sea of despair. We kept the faith. We kept pushing and pulling. We kept marching. And we made some progress."
Read quote
51 likes