Marian Wright Edelman Professions : ActivistBorn : June 6, 1939 Browse All Authors Top 173 quotes by Marian Wright Edelman We all need to get out of our safety zones too. In addition to voting, we need to embarrass people who don't do the right thing. It's going to take citizen action. Marian Wright Edelman safety-zonevotingpeople I hadn't planned on going to law school. I wanted to study 19th-century Russian literature. Marian Wright Edelman literaturelawschool It never occurred to me that I was not going to challenge segregation. Marian Wright Edelman segregationchallenges I never thought I was breaking a glass ceiling. I just had to do what I had to do, and it never occurred to me not to. Marian Wright Edelman glass-ceilingceilingsglasses Never work just for money. Money alone won't save your soul or build a decent family life or help you sleep at night. We're the richest nation on Earth, with the highest number of imprisoned people in the world. Our drug addictions and child poverty are among the highest in the industrialized world. So don't ever confuse wealth or fame with character. Marian Wright Edelman moneycharacterchildren Much of what I do now stems from my rage at segregation and discrimination. I can't stand to see children not able to do anything, anybody not able to do what they can do. The daily lessons of exclusion, having hand-me-down books in schools, of seeing ambulances turn away and not give health care for people lying in the streets who are migrant workers. Everything I do today stems from that segregated existence. Marian Wright Edelman booklyingchildren In politics, there are no friends. Marian Wright Edelman no-friends I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do. Marian Wright Edelman helping-othersreligiouspeople 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. Marian Wright Edelman hypocritemotherchildren If things are too easy, life is a whole lot less interesting. Marian Wright Edelman life-iseasyinteresting I have always believed that I could help change the world, because I have been lucky to have adults around me who did. Marian Wright Edelman adultsluckyworld History does not pose problems without eventually producing the solutions. Marian Wright Edelman solutionsproblemdoe Hunger and malnutrition have devastating consequences for children and have been linked to low birth weight and birth defects, obesity, mental and physical health problems, and poorer educational outcomes. Marian Wright Edelman birth-defectseducationalchildren God, please help us remember that all the darkness in the world cannot snuff out the light of one little candle. Help us to keep lighting our little candles until a mighty torch of justice sweeps our nation and the world. Marian Wright Edelman lightdarknessjustice Don't be afraid of hard work. Marian Wright Edelman hardhard-work I also grew up with community co-parents who looked out for each other. They looked out for children and tried to be the hands of God. They tried to live their faith. Marian Wright Edelman communitychildrenhands Amidst protestations of 'Who can be against the children?' too few people are FOR children when it really matters. Marian Wright Edelman matterchildrenpeople 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. Marian Wright Edelman blackcommunityhands I try to act out of faith. Marian Wright Edelman trying 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. Marian Wright Edelman i-believetoughbelieve Similar Authors Brooke Axtell activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali activist Assata Shakur activist Arun Manilal Gandhi activist Arthur Hertzberg activist Arlene Holt Baker activistAll Authors
