A. Philip Randolph Quotes

There is nothing stronger than the American labor movement. United, we cannot and we will not be turned aside. We'll work for it, sisters and brothers. We'll stand for it. Together. Each of us. To bring out the best in America. To bring out the best in ourselves, and each other.

Those who march with us will certainly face abuse, misunderstanding, bitter animosity, and possibly the ferocity of struggle and of danger. In return, we can only offer to them the deep belief that they are fighting that a great land may live.

Well, I think that we have to continue to fight for what we believe.

The battle for freedom and liberty really never is over, and there are really low points in it, but I'm not giving up, and I'm not gonna engage in phony pep talks, either.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can't stop marching. Even when they're turning the hoses on you, you can't stop.

There is no sense in the struggle, but there is no choice but to struggle.

We have to choices in this world; we either try to survive or to give up.

We are suffering. We have suffered. And we are not afraid to suffer in order to win our cause.

America is a country of fighters. People who fought their way in and then continued fighting.

Success is 99 percent failure.

In my early days in school, I had no shoes, no school bags. There were days I had only one meal... I walked miles and crossed rivers to school every day. Didn't have power, didn't have generators, studied with lanterns, but I never despaired.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what's left?

I've always believed in survival.

Well it seems to me, that all real communities grow out of a shared confrontation with survival. Communities are not produced by sentiment or mere goodwill. They grow out of a shared struggle. Our situation in the desert is an incubator for community.

I remember as a little boy I ate one meal a day and sometimes slept in the street. I will never forget that and it inspires me to fight hard, stay strong and remember all the people of my country, trying to achieve better for themselves.

I starved and slept on park benches. I wrapped myself in the pages of my manuscript to keep warm. For two and a half years I took odd jobs; nothing was going to deter me.

You have to wake up and you have to run if you want to survive.

Homey don't quit. What else are you gonna do? It's like those guys in the cartoon they get up in the morning, check the clock and fight all day and after it's over they check the clock and go home. That's how it goes.

And the spirit of revolution will not die while the hearts of these workers continue to beat.

It takes a lot of energy and creativity to make such screwed up lives carry on. And the kind of will people have to survive, year after year, dealing with that stuff, is weirdly impressive.

Sometimes the only way to win is to die trying.

I learned a lot in those first years in Miami, while struggling just for survival, by observing my father's fortitude.

Starting that union was something I believed in very strongly.

The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.

I've seen too much in life to give up.