Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.

Humanitarian appeals always help. They penetrate deeper than political tradeoffs.

It is time for us to turn to each other, not on each other.

I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven’t melted.

Look at the coded language the Right is using against President Barack Obama. Openly calling him a liar in Congress, saying he is ‘not a Christian, he was not born here, he is not one...

A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.

Black men of integrity cannot make a deal with a politician and leave out the poor of the nation, all God’s children.

Any attempt to dilute my support for Sen. Obama will not succeed.

A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.

Urban America has been redlined. Government has not offered tax incentives for investment, as it has in a dozen foreign markets. Banks have redlined it. Industries have moved out, they’ve redlined it. Clearly, to break...

If you don’t feel apologetic for slavery, if you don’t feel apologetic for colonialism, if you feel proud of it then say that.

Republicans are the party of ‘no,’ and Democrats are the party of ‘don’t know’ because it hasn’t fought for bold ideas, policies, or plans to turn us in a new direction.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn’t born in me.

Keep hope alive!

The law protects you from being abused. It doesn’t threaten your lifestyle for someone else to have the right to exhibit their lifestyle.

Negroes’ problem is that they do not have their egos. That’s why our churches end up having a white service, because our preacher is not arrogant enough to take God’s word, so he have to...

George Bush has met more foreign heads of state than I have. But a substantial number of them were dead.

I am a journalist.

At least the politicians are accountable to the voters.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and...

If you don’t know what tomorrow holds, you need to know who holds tomorrow!

The coffers are full of money and equipment for the Ferguson Police and the Missouri National Guard to put down a potential uprising, but no money for actually uplifting the people of Ferguson, St. Louis,...

If my mind can conceive it, My heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it!

I’m too mature to be angry.

Most blacks will argue that they excel because of hard work, because of intellect, determination, sweat, blood, tears and risk.

We reveal our joys and successes, we conceal our pain.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

If a black doctor discovers a cure for cancer, ain’t no hospital going to lock him out.

I had to steal to survive.

Black and Jewish leaders have been a coalition of conscience.

A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer.

My very first recollection of life on earth was waking up in bed with my mother, and she was showing me a picture of my father, Charles Jackson, with a group of soldiers.

I think reconciliation is Obama’s goal – but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and...

When journalists and politicians speak of a dwindling middle class that’s under economic assault and a poor community that’s getting bigger, they’re talking about Ferguson. Independent of the racial demographics and dynamics of Ferguson, Missouri,...

If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.

We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.

In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

You may choose your mate, but you cannot deny someone else the right to choose their mate.

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.

You know, people’d always ask ‘Why is Jesse Jackson running for the White House?’ They never seen the house I’m running from.

I know they are all environmentalists. I heard a lot of my speeches recycled.

I know how to run a nationally paced campaign.

America needs young people to be inspired to choose sacrifice over greed.

The more you focus on sex without love, and drugs and violence, lifestyle of intimidation and recycling, the less energy you spend on opening up the big tent.

Who lives long and who dies prematurely, is the defining issue of our time. And I submit to you, there’s a significant race dimension, it is basically class-driven.

At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.

At the end of the day, we’re defined by our predicament, not by the sides of town.

If you run, you might lose. If you don’t run, you’re guaranteed to lose.