Jesse Jackson Quotes

34 Sourced Quotes

We must know the difference between sweat and tears. Sweat is wet. Tears are wet. Sweat is salty. Tears are salty. But progress comes through sweat. Progress never came through tears.

Jesse Jackson
We need a regime change in this country.… If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority.

Jesse Jackson
We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.

Jesse Jackson
Our flag is red, white, and blue, but our nation is a rainbow – red, yellow, brown, black and white, we are all precious in God's sight!

Jesse Jackson
The genius of America is that out of the many, we become one.

Jesse Jackson
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

Jesse Jackson
My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the despised.

Jesse Jackson
If you wake up in the morning and think you're white, you're bound to meet someone before five o'clock who will let you know you are just another nigger.

Jesse Jackson
You can't plant the seed and pick the fruit the next morning.

Jesse Jackson
I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

Jesse Jackson
You can't teach what you don't know. And you can't lead where you don't go.

Jesse Jackson
Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. And in the end, faith will not disappoint. Faith, hope, and dreams will prevail... Our time has come. Our time has come. Our time has come.

Jesse Jackson
Tears will get you sympathy, but sweat will get you change.

Jesse Jackson
We say that we may be in the slum, but the slum is not in us.

Jesse Jackson
We are shifting from burn baby burn, to learn baby learn.

Jesse Jackson
Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

Jesse Jackson
We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up. Jesus said that we should not be judged by the bark we wear but by the fruit that we bear. Jesus said that we must measure greatness by how we treat the least of these.

Jesse Jackson
The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved, indeed.

Jesse Jackson
I am - Somebody. I may be poor, but I am - Somebody! I may be on welfare, but I am - Somebody! I may be uneducated, but I am - Somebody! I must be, I'm God's child. I must be respected and protected. I am black and I am beautiful! I am - Somebody! Soul Power!

Jesse Jackson
Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites – rather than fighting for jobs or education –fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.

Jesse Jackson
See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith-based... I want to cut his nuts off. Barack, he's talking down to black people.

Jesse Jackson
That's all Hymie wants to talk about is Israel. Every time you go to Hymietown that's all they want to talk about.

Jesse Jackson
You must not surrender. You may or may not get there, but just know that you're qualified and hold on and hold out. We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive!

Jesse Jackson
I am somebody.
I am a somebody.
I am a child of God.
I may not be educated but I am somebody.
I may not have any money but I am somebody.
I may not eat steak every day but I am somebody.
I may not look the way you look but I am somebody.

Jesse Jackson
If my mind can conceive it, if my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it because I am somebody!
Respect me! Protect me! Never neglect me!
I am somebody!
My mind is a pearl! I can learn anything in the world!
Nobody can save us, from us, for us, but us!
I can learn. It is possible.
I ought to learn. It is moral.
I must learn. It is imperative.

Jesse Jackson
My right and my privilege to stand here before you has been won—won in my lifetime—by the blood and the sweat of the innocent.

Jesse Jackson
When I look out at this convention, I see the face of America, red, yellow, brown, black, and white. We are all precious in God's sight—the real rainbow coalition.

Jesse Jackson
When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed, it's called a depression.

Jesse Jackson
A cheque or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.

Jesse Jackson
Politicians argue for abortion largely because they do not want to spend the necessary money to feed, clothe and educate more people... There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of higher order than the right to life. I do not share that view... That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside of your right to concerned.

Jesse Jackson