Marian Wright Edelman Quotations

In my generation, we learned how to be leaders by being exposed to and involved with adults who empowered us and gave us a sense that we could choose things. We've let down the generations coming behind us and we are trying to re- establish that connection.

You'd better stay determined, because that's how our ancestors got us where we are.

It is time for every one of us to roll up our sleeves and put ourselves at the top of our commitment list.

God did not create two classes of children or human beings-only one.

Dr. King used to say, 'I was sitting in the back of the bus, but my mind was always up front.' Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. You aim high and you work very hard and now I think it's clear that you can be anything you want to.

I need to work outside government, on my own,

Education remains one of the black community's most enduring values. It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence.

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'm tough in the sense that I believe as strongly in what I'm doing as anybody else believes in what they are doing.

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