Marian Wright Edelman

Whoever said anyone has the right to give up.

Ordinary women of grace are, in a sense, my real role models.

Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.

If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.

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.

I'm sure I am impatient sometimes. I sure do get angry sometimes. I think it's outrageous how hard it is to get this country to feed its children and to take care of its children, to give them a decent education.

I hope that people of all faiths will start looking for our too-invisible children who are crying out for help.

When President Kennedy was elected, many black Americans, like so many Americans, were captivated by his youth and energy and promise and were especially hopeful that he might move the country in a new direction on civil rights.

Each American must remember and help America remember that the fellowship of human beings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society.

If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out.

So much of the deep lingering sadness over President Kennedy's assassination is about the unfinished promise: unspoken speeches, unfulfilled hopes, the wondering about what might have been.

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

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

If things are too easy, life is a whole lot less interesting.

There should not be one new dime in tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires as long as millions of children in America are poor, hungry, uneducated and without health coverage.

I feel very lucky to have grown up having interaction with adults who were making change but who were far from perfect beings. That feeling of not being paralyzed by your incredible inadequacy as a human being, which I feel every day, is a part of the legacy that I've gotten from so many of the adult elders.

Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter.

Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.