John F. Kennedy Quotes

It is the moral force which carries a movement forward.

Injustice, poverty, slavery, ignorance - these may be cured by reform or revolution. But men do not live only by fighting evils. They live by positive goals, individual and collective, a vast variety of them, seldom predictable, at times incompatible.

Security isn't what I hunger for. I hunger for change. I hunger for connection.

If you have an opportunity to use your voice you should use it.

There is always a moment in any kind of struggle when one feels in full bloom. Vivid. Alive…. During my years of being close to people engaged in changing the world, I have seen fear turn into courage. Sorrow into joy. Funerals into celebrations. Because whatever the consequences, people, standing side by side, have expressed who they really are, and that ultimately they believe in the love of the world and each other enough to be that-which is the foundation of activism.

Social change without music would be void of soul. Nonviolence without music, meditation, action, and a willingness to take risks probably doesn't exist.

Don't be a marshmallow. Walk the street with us into history. Get off the sidewalk. Stop being vegetables. Work for Justice. Viva the boycott!

We face ... a moral crisis as a country and as a people,” said the president. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution ... peaceful and constructive for all.

Every era demands its own answers, and if one wants to do good, one must be prepared for them.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

Something is stirring in the hearts and minds of the people.

Schools were not just places to learn. They were epicenters of social revolution.

It was imperative to make common cause with the oppressed in order to secure a new system opposed to the ambitions and governing habits of the oppressors.

That's why I want to change Mississippi. You don't run away from problems - you just face them.

I've worked for everything I've had, and I can't think of a better way of using it than standing up for what's right, and what's required to build a better society.

We as African Americans knew that if we wanted to see change, we had to step up to the plate and make that change ourselves. Not everyone comes to that realization in their lives, but thank God Linda Brown's father felt that way.

These people in Mississippi State, they are not "down"; all they need is a chance. And I am determined to give my part not for what the Movement can do for me, but what I can do for the Movement to bring about a change in the State of Mississippi.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.

Listen, here's reality. It is completely unfair and absolutely necessary that people who have been oppressed and marginalized have to lead everybody. That is MLK, that is Dolores Huerta, that is Fannie Lou Hamer, that is Ella Jo Baker, that is Nelson Mandela. You walk down the line.

Usually, the leaders appear in the moment of the highest stress, when it is time, speaking symbolically, to go to the barricades. Then people, clever, capable, but focused on their own tasks, will leave their immediate occupations and go to the barricades, because there is nowhere to hide.

I had very little exposure to business growing up. I also was very focused on the Civil Rights Movement. And I saw law as a vehicle to really bring about substantial change.

There's no problem on the planet that can't be solved without violence. That's the lesson of the civil rights movement.

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

We accept the world in order to change it. If you do not accept, then what are you going to change?

If you scratch below the surface and ask what really makes me tick, it's the liberalism of trying to promote freedom and opportunity. Promoting social mobility is one of the keys to that.