Barbara Jordan Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.

Barbara Jordan
The stakes... are too high for government to be a spectator sport.

Barbara Jordan
I have confidence that we can form this kind of national community.

Barbara Jordan
We were poor, but so was everyone around us, so we did not notice it.

Barbara Jordan
You must understand that I have a tremendous faith in my own capacity.

Barbara Jordan
If you're going to play the game properly you'd better know every rule.

Barbara Jordan
To deny birthright citizenship would derail this engine of American liberty.

Barbara Jordan
What the people want is very simple. They want an America as good as its promise.

Barbara Jordan
The Bill of Rights was not ordained by nature or God. It's very human, very fragile.

Barbara Jordan
The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.

Barbara Jordan
If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.

Barbara Jordan
A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.

Barbara Jordan
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.

Barbara Jordan
I'm not long on patience. Sometimes I'm more abrupt with people than I ought to be. I always regret it afterward.

Barbara Jordan
A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.

Barbara Jordan
It is not enough to say "right on, brother" or "we shall overcome".... You must become part of the decision-making process.

Barbara Jordan
You need a core inside you — a core that directs everything you do. You confer with it for guidance. It is not negotiable.

Barbara Jordan
If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.

Barbara Jordan
I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.

Barbara Jordan
There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.

Barbara Jordan
We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted.

Barbara Jordan
Those who hold the public trust must adhere to the highest ethical standards there are. The job requires it, and the public must demand it.

Barbara Jordan
There is a part of my who enjoys to speak when I have something to day. And if I don't have anything that I feel needs to be said, then I don't say it.

Barbara Jordan
Things which matter cost money, and we've got to spend the money if we do not want to have generations of parasites rather than generations of productive citizens.

Barbara Jordan
This country can ill afford to continue to function using less than half of its human resources, less than half its kinetic energy, less than half its brain power.

Barbara Jordan
We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.

Barbara Jordan
Our concept of governing is derived from our view of people. It is a concept deeply rooted in a set of beliefs firmly etched in the national conscience, of all of us.

Barbara Jordan
Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.

Barbara Jordan
We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present: unemployment, inflation... but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America.

Barbara Jordan
What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.

Barbara Jordan