233 Quotes by Marian Wright Edelman

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.

Don’t just dream about grandiose acts of doing good. Every day do small ones, that add up over time to positive patterns.

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.

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.

It’s time for greatness – not for greed. It’s a time for idealism – not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.

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.

We have the capacity to make sure that every mother has pre-natal care. Yet, we don’t do it. What is it about America? It says we don’t value children and families. We are hypocrites.

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back – but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.

If you as parents cut corners, your children will too. If you lie, they will too. If you spend all your money on yourselves and tithe no portion of it for charities, colleges, churches, synagogues, and civic causes, your children won’t either. And 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.