Jesse Jackson Quotes

Jesse Jackson was involved in a three-car crash this weekend. I understand that no one was hurt, but I understand that two of the women in the other cars are now pregnant. ~ Jay Leno

I'm not wasting my time with any more non-straight-talking candidates. ~ Jesse Jackson

We've removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

Ronald Reagan was older than I was when he ran for president. ~ Jesse Jackson

Politicians argue for abortion largely because they do not want to spend the necessary money to feed, clothe and educate more people ... There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of higher order than the right to life. I do not share that view ... That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside of your right to concerned. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man. ~ Jesse Jackson

We're an odd match. Imagine Ronald Reagan and Jesse Jackson; imagine night and day. George has built nuclear reactors and believes in them fiercely. We stay away from this and other subjects the way I'd stay away from Three Mile Island. After all, I have plenty of friends who share my most impassioned opinions; we can have an orgy of agreement any day at the natural foods restaurant, over a sprout sandwich. But he's the one out here helping. ~ Sy Safransky

Don't look down on somebody unless you are helping them up. ~ Jesse Jackson

It's not logical that we boast the most advanced and powerful internationally integrated economy in the world, then claim organizational incompetence and poverty when it comes to creating and funding a national health care system for all Americans. ~ Jesse Jackson, Jr.

God doesn't make orange juice, God makes oranges. ~ Jesse Jackson

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow
red, yellow, brown, black and white
and we're all precious in God's sight. ~ Jesse Jackson

I am a journalist. ~ Jesse Jackson

My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised. ~ Jesse Jackson

Hold your head high, stick your chest out. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive. ~ Jesse Jackson

I'm a Third World person. I grew up in an occupied zone [Greenville, South Carolina] and had to negotiate with the superpower, really the colonial power. ~ Jesse Jackson

We must know the difference between sweat and tears. Sweat is wet. Tears are wet. Sweat is salty. Tears are salty. But progress comes through sweat. Progress never came through tears. ~ Jesse Jackson

It'll be a great day when the seniors have all the baseball caps they need and the Pentagon bombs Gilligan's Island. ~ Jesse Jackson

That's just like America. It's made up of lots of different people. We're all different colors, different ages, we do different jobs
but it takes all of us black people, white people, brown people, men and women, young and old, working in the factories, working in the fields, working in offices, working in stores
it takes a lot of different kinds of people to get the job done for America. ~ Jesse Jackson

When blacks are unemployed, they are considered lazy and apathetic. When whites are unemployed, it's considered a depression. ~ Jesse Jackson

In tough economic times, desperate people do desperate things, and the abortion rate goes up. ~ Jesse Jackson

No one wants to see self-destructive riots because there's no future in riots. ~ Jesse Jackson

We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date. ~ Jesse Jackson

Each time a barrier falls for one person, the doors of opportunity open wider for every other American. ~ Jesse Jackson

If a black doctor discovers a cure for cancer, ain't no hospital going to lock him out. ~ Jesse Jackson

Obama used to be a community organizer. He knows how to build communities. ~ Jesse Jackson

When I came here, I put my hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. I didn't put my hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible. ~ Jesse Jackson

Our goal was not freedom. Freedom was the necessary prerequisite to get to equality. ~ Jesse Jackson

Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy. ~ Jesse Jackson

The boar held a VCR reote control and cackled maliciously as he watched a video of U.S. politicians grinning with their one-time budy Saddam
Dick Cheney, Gulf War-era Secretary of State James Baker, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, to the tune of "Taking Care of Business." And then the viewers saw themselves in a mirror emblazoned with the words "You are a witness. ~ Wafaa Bilal

Iraq will drive American agenda for a long time because Iraq policy has so damaged America in the Middle East region, left us isolated. We are there now by brute strength, we are not there because we are desired. ~ Jesse Jackson

I'm sure you know by now, Jesse Jackson was overheard saying, and I'll put this more delicately, that he wanted to cut Barack Obama's testicles off. And Jesse has been on several news programs the last couple of days, explaining what he meant by those comments. Do you need to explain that? ~ Jay Leno

We made this inexplicable turn into Iraq, where we've lost lives, money, honour and the coalition on [George] Bush's watch. Surely he's not suggesting that if the Democrats win, things can get worse. I mean, all we can do now is to look at our field policy and change the course. We need more diplomatic outreach toward Iran, Syria and Middle Eastern allies, and less bluster and less threats, and fewer troops. ~ Jesse Jackson

I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet. ~ Jesse Jackson

Those who have the most wealth and the most property, their children have the first, the best, and the most. ~ Jesse Jackson

If you wear a hoodie but aren't registered to vote, you got the symbolism but missed the substance. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes. But don't stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age and unwinnable. ~ Jesse Jackson

There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards. ~ Ralph Nader

I remember being taught my place. ~ Jesse Jackson

[I] would argue that native-born blacks are so vastly less "African" than actual Africans that calling ourselves 'African American' is not only illogical but almost disrespectful to African immigrants. Here are people who were born in Africa, speak African languages, eat African food, dance in African ways, remember African stories, and will spiritually always be a part of Africa -and we stand up and insist that we, too, are 'African' because Jesse Jackson said so? ~ John McWhorter

Humanitarian appeals always help. They penetrate deeper than political tradeoffs. ~ Jesse Jackson

Hymies." And "Hymietown. ~ Jesse Jackson

Few would deny that blacks have become very dominant in athletics: football, basketball, track, now dominant in tennis and dominant in golf. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

I know how to run a nationally paced campaign. ~ Jesse Jackson

In order for an ideal to become a reality, there must be a person, a personality to translate it. ~ Jesse Jackson

I have very mixed feelings about Jesse Jackson. He's very good about labor, and human and civil rights issues, but not so good on cultural issues. ~ Jello Biafra

A man must be willing to die for ... ~ Jesse Jackson

We picked their cotton. We cooked their food. We nursed their babies. Now we can run their cities. We can run their states. We will run the country. ~ Jesse Jackson

The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt ~ Jesse Jackson

When I used to work for Reverend Jesse Jackson he would say, "You've got to know the rules in order to break the rules." The 1988 campaign of Reverend Jesse Jackson made fundamental changes to the way Democrats do business. ~ Leah D. Daughtry

The charges that I am anti-Semitic are simply erroneous, felonious, and unceremonious. In fact, when I need a doctor, I always look for one with a Jewish name. ~ Jesse Jackson

See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith-based ... I want to cut his nuts off. Barack, he's talking down to black people. ~ Jesse Jackson

When we do in Grenada what the Soviet Union did in Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, we lose moral authority and credibility. ~ Jesse Jackson

Workers, black and white, need some kind of international affirmative action to protect them from unfair competition with unorganized or slave labor abroad and unfair competition with robots at home. ~ Jesse Jackson

It is in struggle and service with our brothers and sisters, individually and collectively, that we find the meaning of life. ~ Jesse Jackson

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

The other day the plane that Barack Obama was on had some mechanical difficulties and was forced to land. Well, the National Transportation Safety Board did an inspection on the plane, and you know what they found? The bolts on the plane were fine, but apparently Jesse Jackson had taken some of the nuts off. ~ Jay Leno

Many are observing Ferguson and witnessing the anger, demonstrations, looting and vandalism and calling for quiet. But quiet isn't enough. The absence of noise isn't the presence of justice - and we must demand justice in Ferguson and the other 'Fergusons' around America. ~ Jesse Jackson

People like to say don't abort, adopt. But I'm saying don't strip, scholarship. ~ Jesse Jackson

We must all learn a good lesson - how to live together. That is the new challenge of the new world ... learning to co-exist and not co-annihilate. ~ Jesse Jackson

Surrender had played out for good with me. ~ Jesse Jackson

Peace is the alternative to war, and nonviolence should be seen as the antidote to violence, not simply as its opposite. Nonviolence is more concerned with saving life than with saving face. ~ Jesse Jackson

When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression. ~ Jesse Jackson

Everywhere I go, kids walk around not with books under their arms, but with radios up against their heads. Children can't read or write, but they can memorize whole albums. ~ Jesse Jackson

If the American people in a matter of months can love the people of Kuwait, whom they have not seen, they can love the people of our nation's capital just as well. ~ Jesse Jackson

Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude. ~ Jesse Jackson

I want to make America better! ~ Jesse Jackson

Sometimes arrogance makes us overreach. George Bush Jr. often tries to suggest the leaders of other countries, and it is just not good diplomacy. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

We've been so preoccupied with getting the government to behave in a fair and democratic way, we were not able to focus on the private sector where most of the jobs are, where most of the wealth and opportunities are. ~ Jesse Jackson

I must oppose the use of federal funds for a policy of killing infants. ~ Jesse Jackson

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

If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart. ~ Jesse Jackson

You can't teach what you don't know. And you can't lead where you don't go. ~ Jesse Jackson

Here comes Jesse Jackson, he talks of common ground. Does that common ground include me, or is it just a sound? ~ Lou Reed

If I were a white candidate, I'd have won the Democratic nomination. ~ Jesse Jackson

Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day. ~ Jesse Jackson

Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson? ~ Rush Limbaugh

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

When you create more small businesses, you create small entrepreneurship. Out of that comes self-determination and employment. ~ Jesse Jackson

You cannot teach what you don't know. You cannot give energy if you're not on fire on the inside. ~ Jesse Jackson

When everyone is included, everyone wins. ~ Jesse Jackson

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 go and get some white fellow's agenda and put it in his church. ~ Jesse Jackson

Question: Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama, who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo
a black on the outside, a white on the inside
that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for? ~ John McLaughlin

Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville. ~ Jesse Jackson

It has always been an irony to me that the 'religious right' has come under so much attack for being involved in politics when the black community has been doing it for hundreds of years. The Reverend Jesse Jackson is rarely, if ever, attacked for his involvement in politics. ~ Kay Coles James

When God rang the bell that ended the fight, the world cried out for one more round. ~ Jesse Jackson

That Obama I would like to cut his nuts off. ~ Jesse Jackson

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. ~ Jesse Jackson

We went across the South on Super Tuesday without a single catcall or boo, without a single ugly sign. Not until we got to New York and the North did the litmus test of race and religion spout from the mouths of public officials. ~ Jesse Jackson

The only justification we have to look down on someone is because we are about to pick him up. ~ Jesse Jackson

On the political front, of course it's a zero-sum game. If it's all white males holding positions, you bring 10 women in, then it's, 'Women are coming!' Get 10 blacks and it's, 'Blacks are coming!' 'Hispanics are coming!' Zero-sum game. The seatmates might change but the chairs don't move. In the economy, the number of chairs can actually increase. ~ Jesse Jackson

How can you have in our country that is based upon liberality and liberation, be so anti-liberal. That's toxic waste to our consciousness. It's hard to be an American conservative because that's a contradiction in terms. Now if you take away freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of protest, and lock people out based upon their race, their language and their religion, that's conservative and fascist. America is a liberal idea. ~ Jesse Jackson

Has done a great job walking a thin line between revenge and remedy. ~ Jesse Jackson

I was born in a slum, but the slum wasn't born in me. ~ Jesse Jackson

Gangs are a group reaction to helplessness. ~ Jesse Jackson