Quotes by Jesse Jackson

"What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share."

"The relationship between the prophet and the President, the priest and the President, is a sacred one."

"In politics, an organized minority is a political majority."

"We've been so preoccupied with getting the government to behave in a fair and democratic way, we were not able to focus on the private sector where most of the jobs are, where most of the wealth and opportunities are."

"Urban America has been redlined. Government has not offered tax incentives for investment, as it has in a dozen foreign markets. Banks have redlined it. Industries have moved out, they've redlined it. Clearly, to break up the redlining process, there must be incentives to green-line with hedges against risk."

"In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home."

"I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984, when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate."

"A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer."

"A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever."

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up."

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

"Your children need your presence more than your presents."

"Those powers that control the tent are not threatened at all by any activity that you engage in, in the shadows, that's not moving toward the tent. And I am rather convinced that we have a generation that is so preoccupied with life in the shadows, they never even focus on getting to the sunlight where you open up the big tent."

"There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism."

"In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down."

"Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change."

"On the political front, of course it's a zero-sum game. If it's all white males holding positions, you bring 10 women in, then it's, 'Women are coming!' Get 10 blacks and it's, 'Blacks are coming!' 'Hispanics are coming!' Zero-sum game. The seatmates might change but the chairs don't move. In the economy, the number of chairs can actually increase."

"Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy sweat will get you change."

"I came to the conclusion that in order to end racial barriers, I needed to run for the office of the president and put forth an agenda of social justice and world peace. In addition, I concluded that someone needed to run and challenge the liberal orthodoxy."

"We must all learn a good lesson - how to live together. That is the new challenge of the new world... learning to co-exist and not co-annihilate."

"So here we are today with a new conversation. When University of Georgia plays Georgia Tech, it's uniform color versus skin color. We have - we've overcome that level of racial fear."

"At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division."

"Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy."

"I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet."

"While I've spent a lot of quality time with my children, perhaps it's not been enough."

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

"America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth."

"Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories."

"A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live."

"Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day."

"If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds."

"For me, Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before."

"Music of all arts should be expansive and inclusive."

"We have to judge politicians by their cumulative score. In one innings they make a great catch, in another they drop the ball. In one they score a home run, in another they strike out. But it is their cumulative batting average that we are interested in."

"Those who write the editorials and those who write the columns, they simply are unaccountable. They're free to impose their cultural politics in the name of freedom of the press."

"Keep hope alive!"

"If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart."

"It is a historical error for those who were not there to just refer to August 28th as 'I Have a Dream' speech day. That is a real disservice to those who were there. It was a sad day. It was not a celebration environment."

"When you create more small businesses, you create small entrepreneurship. Out of that comes self-determination and employment."

"No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams."

"I mean, the fight for a health care bill to cover all Americans and leave none behind is attacked as being a race appeal, which is not true, but then it's put out in the media as true."

"People internalize, from the jail to student loan debt, to credit card debt, to unemployment to the whole collective. It manifests itself in many ways, in people's home lives, domestic stuff."

"Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together."

"Many kids come out of college, they have a credit card and a diploma. They don't know how to buy a house or a car or health insurance or life insurance. They do not know basic microeconomics."

"Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters."

"Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude."

"If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it."