233 Quotes by Marian Wright Edelman

The old notion that children are the private property of parents dies very slowly. In reality, no parent raises a child alone. How many of us nice middle-class folk could make it without our mortgage reduction.

You were born God’s original. Try not to become someone’s copy.

Don’t give anyone the proxy for your conscience.

Democracy cannot breathe, indeed will die, if those enjoined to protect it and uphold the laws snuff it out – with no consequences.

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 admit I still recoil against a society that has so slipped in caring that ordinary human sharing and thoughtfulness appears to warrant a”humanitarian award” and diligent effort seems too often the exception rather than the rule.

Don’t feel entitled to anything you didn’t sweat and struggle for.

I hadn’t planned on going to law school. I wanted to study 19th-century Russian literature.

If it’s wrong for 13-year-old inner-city girls to have babies without the benefit of marriage, it’s wrong for rich celebrities, and we ought to stop putting them on the cover of People magazine.