Marian Wright Edelman

“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.”

“You didn't have a choice about the parents you inherited, but you do have a choice about the kind of parent you will be.”

“Our true remembrance to President Kennedy is in our actions to honor the unspoken words and finish the unfinished work today and tomorrow and for as long as it takes.”

“It was very clear to me in 1965, in Mississippi, that, as a lawyer, I could get people into schools, desegregate the schools, but if they were kicked off the plantations - and if they didn't...”

“I hadn't planned on going to law school. I wanted to study 19th-century Russian literature.”

“I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people...”

“In politics, there are no friends.”

“You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.”

“It never occurred to me that I was not going to challenge segregation.”

“My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.”

“People who don't vote have no line of credit with people who are elected and thus pose no threat to those who act against our interests.”

“We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem.”

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”

“Semi-automatic weapons have no socially redeeming purpose.”

“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”

“A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything and will not stand tall in the future.”