Barbara Jordan Quotes
If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.
Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.
Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it.
I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it.
The majority of the American people still believe that every single individual in this country is entitled to just as much respect, just as much dignity, as every other individual.
For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.
How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance -- the one value that is indispensable in creating community.
"We, the people." It is a very elegant beginning. But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that "We, the people."
If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest.
There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.
Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer. For the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us.
We must exchange the philosophy of excuse - what I am is beyond my control for the philosophy of responsibility.
The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms.
If we promise as public officials, we must deliver. If we as public officials propose, we must produce.
I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance.
I live a day at a time. Each day I look for a kernel of excitement. In the morning, I say: 'What is my exciting thing for today?' Then, I do the day. Don't ask me about tomorrow.
It is reason, and not passion, which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision.
We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.
We have a positive vision of the future founded on the belief that the gap between the promise and reality of America can one day be finally closed. We believe that.
We can certainly defuse the intensity of the anti-immigrant feeling if we can bring some reality to the discussion by showing that they are not using that many resources.
We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted.
What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance.
Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans.
A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation.
Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other ...Fairness treats everbody the same.
In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough. But today that is not enough. People want more.
We are a people trying not only to solve the problems of the present: unemployment, inflation... but we are attempting on a larger scale to fulfill the promise of America.
Our concept of governing is derived from our view of people. It is a concept deeply rooted in a set of beliefs firmly etched in the national conscience, of all of us.
The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.
I think it no accident that most of those emigrating to America in the 19th century identified with the Democratic Party. We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
...for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.