I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I'm not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I'm equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests... I am the candidate of the people...

Shirley Chisholm

Categorized in : People America Country

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

Shirley Chisholm

african-american inspiring ideas

When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the twentieth century and who dared to be a catalyst of change. I don't want to be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress. And I don't even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make a bid for the Presidency I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the twentieth century. That's what I want.

Shirley Chisholm

black want firsts

Don't list to those who say YOU CAN'T. Listen to the voice inside yourself that says, I CAN.

Shirley Chisholm

lists voice leadership

Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth.

Shirley Chisholm

earth inspiring pay

Defeat should not be the source of discouragement, but a stimulus to keep plotting.

Shirley Chisholm

stimulus discouragement defeat

I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.

Shirley Chisholm

voice odds running

In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism.

Shirley Chisholm

social-justice female black

The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens. As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts. It is not too late to complete the work they left undone. Today, here, we should start to do so.

Shirley Chisholm

rights mother father

I've always met more discrimination being a woman than being Black...men are men.

Shirley Chisholm

discrimination black men

Health is a human right, not a privilege to be purchased.

Shirley Chisholm

health-care privilege care

Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deepseated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

Shirley Chisholm

racism justice country

Women must become revolutionary. This cannot be evolution but revolution.

Shirley Chisholm

revolution revolutionary evolution

Laws will not eliminate prejudice from the hearts of human beings. But that is no reason to allow prejudice to continue to be enshrined in our laws - to perpetuate injustice through inaction.

Shirley Chisholm

prejudice law heart

Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.

Shirley Chisholm

skirts our-society losing

At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.

Shirley Chisholm

determination country needs

I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.

Shirley Chisholm

too-much people way

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'

Shirley Chisholm

equality emotional girl

We have never seen health as a right. It has been conceived as a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. This is the real reason the American health care system is in such a scandalous state.

Shirley Chisholm

privilege care real

America has the laws and the material resources it takes to insure justice for all its people. What it lacks is the heart, the humanity.

Shirley Chisholm

justice-for-all law heart

I love America not for what she is, but for what she can become.

Shirley Chisholm

america