John Lewis

I am very, very hopeful about the American South - I believe that we will lead America to what Dr. King called 'the beloved community.'

There may be some difficulties, some interruptions, but as a nation and as a people, we are going to build a truly multiracial, democratic society that maybe can emerge as a model for the rest of the world.

I don't understand it, how President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam and cannot send troops to Selma, Alabama, to protect people whose only desire is to register to vote.

The vote is precious. It's almost sacred, so go out and vote like you never voted before.

We all live in the same house, we all must be part of the effort to hold down our little house. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just... do something about it. Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It's all going to work out.

We must be headlights and not taillights.

The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.

We should be creative, and we should accommodate the needs of every community to open up the democratic process. We should make it easy and accessible for every citizen to participate.

I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century. It's time to lay it down. We all came here in different ships, but now we're all in the same boat.

Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble... good trouble, necessary trouble.

Never give up. Never give in. Never become hostile... Hate is too big a burden to bear.

Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.

I really believe that all of us, as Americans... we all need to be treated like fellow human beings.

We're one people, and we all live in the same house. Not the American house, but the world house.

We need some creative tension; people crying out for the things they want.

My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers.

We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house... and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.

Too many of us still believe our differences define us.

There are still forces in America that want to divide us along racial lines, religious lines, sex, class. But we've come too far; we've made too much progress to stop or to pull back. We must go forward. And I believe we will get there.

When I was 15 years old in the tenth grade, I heard Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years later, when I was 18, I met Dr. King and we became friends. Two years after that I became very involved in the civil rights movement. I was in college at the time. As I got more and more involved, I saw politics as a means of bringing about change

We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.