Jesse Jackson quotes:

My very first recollection of life on earth was waking up in bed with my mother, and she was showing me a picture of my father, Charles Jackson, with a group of soldiers.

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.

Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.

To allow injustice and inequality invites a Ferguson to your community. We must stand together, black, white, brown, red, and yellow and fight for justice and equality for all. It's the only way to avoid more Fergusons.

It is a historical error for those who were not there to just refer to August 28th as 'I Have a Dream' speech day. That is a real disservice to those who were there. It was a sad day. It was not a celebration environment.

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.

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.

Watch the walls come down, whether it's in the South or on Wall Street. When the walls come down, what do we find? More markets, more talent, more capital and growth. Which means that the race and sex discrimination stunt economic growth. It's not good for capitalism. It's not good for America's growth. And it's not morally right.

Urban America has been redlined. Government has not offered tax incentives for investment, as it has in a dozen foreign markets. Banks have redlined it. Industries have moved out, they've redlined it. Clearly, to break up the redlining process, there must be incentives to green-line with hedges against risk.

Many kids come out of college, they have a credit card and a diploma. They don't know how to buy a house or a car or health insurance or life insurance. They do not know basic microeconomics.

At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.

If you think black people have a motivation problem, open up a Wal-Mart and advertise a thousand jobs. Watch 5,000 people show up.

For me, Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before.

Look at the coded language the Right is using against President Barack Obama. Openly calling him a liar in Congress, saying he is 'not a Christian, he was not born here, he is not one of us.' That makes addressing such issues trickier for the first African-American in the White House.

People internalize, from the jail to student loan debt, to credit card debt, to unemployment to the whole collective. It manifests itself in many ways, in people's home lives, domestic stuff.

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.

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

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

I came to the conclusion that in order to end racial barriers, I needed to run for the office of the president and put forth an agenda of social justice and world peace. In addition, I concluded that someone needed to run and challenge the liberal orthodoxy.

We have to judge politicians by their cumulative score. In one innings they make a great catch, in another they drop the ball. In one they score a home run, in another they strike out. But it is their cumulative batting average that we are interested in.

Those companies that don't see the black and brown communities are missing, out of their closed eye, talent, which leads to money and growth. When baseball, football and basketball couldn't see the field, they missed talent and growth. The same is true in the tech industry.

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

Those powers that control the tent are not threatened at all by any activity that you engage in, in the shadows, that's not moving toward the tent. And I am rather convinced that we have a generation that is so preoccupied with life in the shadows, they never even focus on getting to the sunlight where you open up the big tent.

In many ways Africa subsidised America and Europe's development.

There's a full-court press to put down an uprising around Ferguson, but no preparation for lifting up the people there.

Most blacks will argue that they excel because of hard work, because of intellect, determination, sweat, blood, tears and risk.

We reveal our joys and successes, we conceal our pain.

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

I mean, the fight for a health care bill to cover all Americans and leave none behind is attacked as being a race appeal, which is not true, but then it's put out in the media as true.

The relationship between the prophet and the President, the priest and the President, is a sacred one.

The American people on the ground need a clearer, stronger, Lyndon B. Johnson-type voice from their president.

The American people on the ground need a clearer, stronger, Lyndon B. Johnson-type voice from their president. Obama has that voice. It has to be used.

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

I cast my bread on the waters long ago. Now it's time for you to send it back to me - toasted and buttered on both sides.

So here we are today with a new conversation. When University of Georgia plays Georgia Tech, it's uniform color versus skin color. We have - we've overcome that level of racial fear.

You can be out of slavery and have the right to vote, but unless you have access to capital, industry and technology, you can't fulfill your dreams.

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

A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.

A man who cannot be enticed by money or intimidated by the threat of jail or death has two of the strongest weapons that anyone has to offer.

I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984, when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate.

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

I have worked hard to build relationships between Jewish people and black people.

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

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

I had gained a greater appreciation of hearing the concerns of woman, doctors, and so many others.

When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.

The great responsibility that we have today is to put the poor and the near poor back on front of the American agenda.

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

I remember being taught my place.

What is the American dream? The American dream is one big tent. One big tent. And on that big tent you have four basic promises: equal protection under the law, equal opportunity, equal access, and fair share.

A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.

Black men of integrity cannot make a deal with a politician and leave out the poor of the nation, all God's children.

Black and Jewish leaders have been a coalition of conscience.

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.

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

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.

Success needs no explanation. Failure does not have one that matters.

Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.

When they wrote the Constitution, only white male landowners had the right to vote.

From seeds of his body blossomed the flower that liberated a people and touched the soul of a nation.

Your children need your presence more than your presents.

If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.

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

If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.

If you don't feel apologetic for slavery, if you don't feel apologetic for colonialism, if you feel proud of it then say that.

George Bush has met more foreign heads of state than I have. But a substantial number of them were dead.

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.

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

Those in blue suits who use thinly veiled race symbols -- when they say welfare and crime and three strikes and anti- affirmative action -- they are sending messages more profound their language.

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.

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.

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.

Our flag is read, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbown-red, yellow, brown, black and white - and we're all precious in God's sight.

America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.

So many bright stars, bright in life, burn out quickly.

Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.

Conservatives and liberals can find common ground.

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

There's great disparity between who goes to college and who goes to jail. Who lives long and who dies prematurely, is the defining issue of our time. And I submit to you, there's a significant race dimension, it is basically class-driven.

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

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

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.

We blacks were the first people embracing Obama, long before the people at expensive fundraisers were supporting him. We gave him his first love, 96 percent of blacks voted for him in 2008. Yet today we are the number one in unemployment, with 16 percent of American blacks out of work.

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

I am - Somebody. I may be poor, but I am - Somebody! I may be on welfare, but I am - Somebody! I may be uneducated, but I am - Somebody! I must be, I'm God's child. I must be respected and protected. I am black and I am beautiful! I am - Somebody! Soul Power!

You may not be responsible for being down, but you must be responsible for getting up.

Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.

We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.

There have been more people disenfranchised in Washington than there have been in Kuwait.

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

We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got north to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan, and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history.

[I]t's an honor to be a food stamp president. Food stamps feed the hungry. Food stamps save the children. Food stamps help the farmer. Food stamps help the truck driver. Food stamps help the warehouse. Food stamps help the store. Food stamps hire people and feed people. Food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition. ... Give President Barack Obama a big hand. Show your love. Show your appreciation.

Dream big dreams! Others may deprive you of your material wealth and cheat you in a thousand ways, but no man can deprive you of the control and use of your imagination. Men may deal with you unfairly, as men often do; they may deprive you of your liberty; but they cannot take from you the privilege of using your imagination. In your imagination you always win!

I hear that melting pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

Semi-automatic weapons are not just about gun control, they're about national security. You know that these weapons can shoot down airplanes, they can blow up railroads. This is really a whole national security issue.

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.

In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while. Your children need your presence more than your presents.

I think reconciliation is Obama's goal - but the fight with the Republicans is like a fight with pit bulls, they never let go. Even worse, now the Republicans feel they can keep pushing and he will keep giving. They have not seen a stiff resistance on his part.

At the end of the day, we're defined by our predicament, not by the sides of town.

Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet

While I've spent a lot of quality time with my children, perhaps it's not been enough.

America is not like a blanket- one piece of unbroken cloth. America is more like a quilt- many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together by a common thread.

Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites -- rather than fighting for jobs or education -- fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.

Hymies." And "Hymietown.

We need a regime change in this country.... If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority.

Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.

The laws are stacked for the wealthy.

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping them up.

In many ways, history is marked as 'before' and 'after' Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.

Many have fought for and even lost their lives to end segregation, to win the right to vote. It disappoints me to now have to cajole people to register and to vote.

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

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

In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.

Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change.

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

Who lives long and who dies prematurely, is the defining issue of our time. And I submit to you, there's a significant race dimension, it is basically class-driven.

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

Humanitarian appeals always help. They penetrate deeper than political tradeoffs.

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