You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.
Interpretation
Progress requires active participation rather than passive complaint.
This quote by Shirley Chisholm emphasizes the importance of taking action to achieve progress. Instead of merely observing challenges or expressing dissatisfaction, one must engage with the situation and put ideas into practice to make meaningful advancements in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech to a group of students about taking initiative in their projects.
I was the first American citizen to be elected to Congress in spite of the double drawbacks of being female and having skin darkened by melanin. When you put it that way, it sounds like a foolish reason for fame. In a just and free society it would be foolish. That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free.
I stand before you today to repudiate the ridiculous notion that the American people will not vote for qualified candidates simply because he is not white or because she is not a male.
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'
I know that millions of Americans from all walks of life agree with me that leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible.
Of course laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws - to perpetuate injustice through inaction.
I want history to remember me... not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.
The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment.
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