400 Inspiring John Lewis Quotes On Leadership: Good Trouble

1. “Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.” – John Lewis

2. “I believed innocently and profoundly as a child that the world could be a better place.“

3. “Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?”

4. “We could not waste time harboring bitterness or resentment. We knew that our focus had to be on what we hoped to create, not the indignities we were pressing to leave behind.”

5. “When growing up, I saw segregation. I saw racial discrimination. I saw those signs that said white men, colored men. White women, colored women. White waiting. And I didn’t like it.” – John Lewis

6. “Sometimes I hear people saying, ‘Nothing has changed.’ Come and walk in my shoes.” – John Lewis

7. “Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope.”

8. “We live in a country where we're supposed to have freedom of the press and religious freedom, but I think to some degree, there's a sense of fear in America today, that if you say the wrong thing, what some people will consider what is wrong, if you step out of line, if you dissent, whether you be an entertainer, that somehow and some way this government or the forces to be will come down on you.”

9. “I believe that you see something that you want to get done, you cannot give up, and you cannot give in.” — John Lewis

10. “Because I had long ago decided that I wasn’t going to be bound by the mental shackles of hate, anger, and discontent. Forgiveness is medicine for the mind, balm for the body, and healing for the heart.”

11. “When he was killed, I really felt I’d lost a part of myself.”

12. “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” —NELSON MANDELA”

13. “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power.”

14. “I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.”

15. “We have a “fast-food mentality” that expects an instant return on our investment of time, attention, and effort, a return that is concrete and clear. We are so comfortable charging forward and succeeding through our aggression and innovation that the idea of patience can seem contrary to our instincts.”

16. “Repent Unto Life”, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Eternal Life in Christ, Divine Mercy of God, Resources)

17. “We think of ourselves as more enlightened, more developed than the “primitive” peoples our civilizations have supplanted, yet in all our advancement, we are responsible for more death, more suffering, more murder and mayhem than any period in recorded history.”

18. “Never when in authority rebuke anyone in anger, but only when anger has passed away; and so shall the rebuke bring forth good fruit.” – Teresa of Avila

19. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” — John Lewis

20. “There was a time when politicians needed to be great orators because the people themselves were grappling with the challenges of conscience, trying to perceive what is “right” and what is “wrong.” But today, not only do we miss the eloquence of public speaking, but the moral compass of so many leaders seems to be skewed.”

21. “I meet so many ambitious young politicians and leaders who want to jump to the head of the line. They do not know how we arrived at this point in our history as a nation, but they believe they should be appointed to lead us into the future. They think that because they are educated, articulate, and talented someone should usher them down the red carpet to a throne of leadership. But real leaders are not appointed. They emerge out of the masses of the people and rise to the forefront through the circumstances of their lives. Either their inner journey or their human experience prepares them to take that role. They do not nominate themselves. They are called into service by a spirit moving through a people that points to them as the embodiment of the cause they serve.”

22. “It is the responsibility, yet the individual choice, of each of us to use the light we have to dispel the work of darkness, because if we do not, then the power of falsehood rises.”

23. “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.“

24. “When you burn down a building or topple a car, the violence drown out the injustice of what’s being done to you. It puts you on the same moral level as the people whose violence you are protesting. You’re no longer on the higher ground or plane. You make enemies of the people you need to win over to effect change.”

25. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”– John Lewis

26. “It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.” — John Lewis

27. “There are still forces in America that want to divide us along racial lines, religious lines, sex, class. But we’ve come too far; we’ve made too much progress to stop or to pull back. We must go forward. And I believe we will get there.” – John Lewis

28. No good work is done anywhere without aid from the Father of Lights.

29. “President Eisenhower warned us decades ago against feeding the enormous appetite of the military industrial complex. And since that time we have disregarded the admonition of a president and a general and proceeded to revolve our entire economy around the industries of war.”

30. “I was beaten, left bloody and unconscious. But I never became bitter or hostile, never gave up. I believe that somehow and some way, if it becomes necessary to use our bodies to help redeem the soul of a nation, then we must do it. Create a society at peace with itself, and lay down the burden of hate and division.” —on his persistent optimism despite his past during a June 2020 interview with Gayle King

31. “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.”

32. “Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” — John Lewis

33. “When you see something that is not the way it should be, don’t be afraid. Speak up, speak out, be courageous.”

34. “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” —MOHANDAS GANDHI”

35. “The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.” — John Lewis

36. “When you pray, move your feet. —AFRICAN PROVERB”

37. “There is still much more work to do. One movement will never offer all the growth humanity needs to experience. To expect so is to build your hopes on a puff of smoke, on a whispered breath; it is to anticipate an illusion.”

38. “You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way… to get in the way.” — John Lewis

39. “We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.” – John Lewis

40. “The government, both state and federal, has a duty to be reasonable and accommodating.” — John Lewis

41. “I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or hateful.”

42. “It takes courage to admit that we participate in killing, violence, and hate around the world. And once you face the truth, it is difficult to retreat back into a state of unconsciousness. Becoming aware of the truth requires action, and that is when the struggle begins.”

43. “I thought I was going to die a few times. On the Freedom Ride in the year 1961, when I was beaten at the Greyhound bus station in Montgomery, I thought I was going to die. On March 7th, 1965, when I was hit in the head with a night stick by a State Trooper at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death, but nothing can make me question the philosophy of nonviolence.”

44. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” —a John Lewis tweet from June 2018

45. “We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house… and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.” – John Lewis

46. “Martin Luther King Jr. said that peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice”

47. “If you are not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to rake the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.” — John Lewis

48. “You lead your own heart first, then the flock.” “The twin graces of a gospel leader are humility and boldness.” (Acts 20:28) “Your ability to listen to other people has everything to do with your ability to listen to God”. –Tom Holliday, Pastor, Alexandria Presbyterian Church

49. “If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law’s protection most! — and listens to their testimony.” — Baldwin, No Name on the Street

50. “Fury spends itself pretty quickly when there’s no fury facing it.” — John Lewis

51. “I believed innocently and profoundly as a child that the world could be a better place.”

52. “To make it hard, to make it difficult, almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.” — John Lewis

53. “Press forward at all times, climbing forward toward that higher ground of the harmonious society that shapes the laws of man to the laws of God.” — Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.

54. “In the past, the great majority of minority voters, in Ohio and other places that means African American voters, cast a large percentage of their votes during the early voting process.” – John Lewis

55. “Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.” — John Lewis

56. “What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.” – John Lewis

57. “You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way… to get in the way.” – John Lewis

58. “Too many of us still believe our differences define us.” — John Lewis

59. “Instead of suggesting that people with cultures and customs we do not understand, people with different color skin, or those who speak another language are somehow beneath us, instead of developing an elaborate rationale to justify our discomfort, it is more honest to simply admit our insecurity and gain acceptance.”

60. “Obama is not an African American president, but a president of all Americans. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, he’s the president of all races.” – John Lewis

61. “God ultimately raises up leaders for one primary reason: His glory. He shows His power in our weakness. He demonstrates His wisdom in our folly. We are all like a turtle on a fence post. If you walk by a fence post and see a turtle on top of it, then you know someone came by and put it there. In the same way, God gives leadership according to His good pleasure.” —Matt Chandler

62. “Lynching and vigilantism were considered duties, the necessary protection of men who were guarding the sanctity of social boundaries and the “purity” of their lineage. No matter the rationale, these ideas put a virtuous face on centuries of brutal history that actually robbed our aggressors of their moral grounding and made them creative participants in the violence.”

63. “even though the truth can’t be denied or erased, it can be systemically obscured, strategically misinterpreted, and hidden from mainstream comprehension”

64. God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn. in no other way.

65. “Although slavery may have been abolished, the crippling poison of racism still persists, and the struggle still continues.” — Harry Belafonte, 2010 rally in Washington, D.C.

66. “the question for us as a society is whether we participate in any way in the corruption of the defenseless, the undereducated, and the poor in spirit. We may not be able to stop the violence of others, but we can stop our own. A child is born in innocence, and this violence does not emerge out of thin air. It is created, fomented, and nurtured in them to their detriment.”

67. “If you are not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to rake the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.” – representative john lewis quotes

68. “The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.” – John Lewis

69. “We called it “making a way out of no way.” So when we were standing in protest facing police dogs and fire hoses, we knew without any doubt that somebody who was greater than us all would make a way out of no way and protect the defenders of the truth.”

70. Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

71. “First time I got arrested, I knew somehow and some way, we would succeed. To go on the Freedom Ride to be beaten and left bloody and unconscious, to be beaten on that bridge in Selma, have a concussion – I thought that I was going to die on that bridge. But somehow and some way, I lived to tell about what happened, and I’ve seen some of the fruits of the labor of so many people, and people must understand that.” – john lewis freedom rider quotes

72. “We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.” — John Lewis

73. “I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century. It’s time to lay it down. We all came here in different ships, but now we’re all in the same boat.” — John Lewis

74. “When you lose your sense of fear you’re free.” — John Lewis

75. “It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.” – John Lewis

76. “Governments and corporations do not live. They have no power, no capacity in and of themselves. They are given life and derive all their authority from their ability to assist, benefit, and transform the lives of the people they touch. All authority emanates from the consent of the governed and the satisfaction of the customer.”

77. “Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.”

78. Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.

79. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way”. —John C. Maxwell

80. “It is so strange to me that we have learned to fly in the air like birds, learned to swim in the ocean like fish, shoot a rocket to the moon, but we have not yet learned how to live together in harmony with one another.”

81. “Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.” – John Lewis.

82. “In Selma, Alabama, in 1965, only 2.1 percent of blacks of voting age were registered to vote. The only place you could attempt to register was to go down to the courthouse. You had to pass a so-called literacy test. And they would tell people over and over again that they didn’t or couldn’t pass the literacy test.” —Democracy Now! interview, 2014

83. “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.”

84. There was a time when politicians needed to be great orators because the people themselves were grappling with the challenges of conscience, trying to perceive what is 'right' and what is 'wrong.' But today, not only do we miss the eloquence of public speaking, but the moral compass of so many leaders seems to be skewed. -John Lewis, Across That Bridge

85. “We all live in the same house, we all must be part of the effort to hold down our little house. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just… do something about it. Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It’s all going to work out.” – John Lewis

86. “Some people have told me that I am a rare bird in the blue sky of dreamers.”

87. “Despite everything that has happened, regardless of the pain of their loss, despite all the other nonviolent peaceful warriors who suffered and sometimes fell, I have never once considered giving up or giving out. I could not let myself get lost in a sea of despair, because I had faith that the truth is bigger than all humanity. The tragedy of their loss was a crisis of faith, but in that struggle, I discovered that you can kill a Medgar Evers or a Jimmie Lee Jackson. You can kill three civil rights workers named Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. You can bomb four innocent little girls in church on a Sunday morning. You can even kill three of the finest leaders of the twentieth century, but you cannot kill the truth they represented. The truth marches on; it is not connected to the life of any one individual. When a person dies, the dream does not die. You can kill a man, but the truth that he stood for will never die.”

88. “It takes more than a busy church, a friendly church, or even an evangelical church to impact a community for Christ. It must be a church ablaze, led by leaders who are ablaze for God”. —Wesley L. Duewel

89. “Fury spends itself pretty quickly when there's no fury facing it.”

90. “I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.” —on being ready to die for your beliefs before the fight is won

91. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” – John Lewis

92. “John Lewis” by “Lorie Shaull“, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

93. “My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers.”

94. “Destruction doesn’t work. Rioting isn’t a movement. We must be constructive and not destructive. Chaos is sowing more division and discord.”

95. “I really believe that all of us, as Americans… we all need to be treated like fellow human beings.” – John Lewis

96. “Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back.” — John Lewis

97. “The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.” —John Stott

98. “The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.” – John Lewis

99. “But we must accept one central truth as participants in a democracy: Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power.”

100. “Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.” —Goodwin College commencement speech, 2013

101. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” —on the ongoing fight for equal rights

102. “In terms of our elected officials, I think we need to ask...: How far should we go with our need to know before we completely veer off into the personal and the private and leave behind any chance of having a legitimate debate or discussion or discourse about the issues at hand?”

103. “Too many of us still believe our differences define us.” – John Lewis

104. “It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds and thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets to speak up, to speak out, to get into what I call ‘good trouble,’ but to get in the way, and because of the action of young and old, Black, white, Latino, Asian-American, and Native American, because people cried and prayed, people will never, ever forget what happened and how it happened, and it is my hope that we are on our way to greater change.” —on Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s death.

105. “The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.” – John Stott

106. “Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.” — John Lewis

107. “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.” —from Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

108. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.”

109. “Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.” (“The Most Durable Power,” 1956.) Keep the inspiration flowing with these inspiring John Lewis quotes about voting, education, and social justice.

110. The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does,. whoever he is.

111. “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” —on what he’s learned about movement work, from his 2017 memoir, “Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America”

112. “We are involved now in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. What political leader here can stand up and say, "My party is the party of principles?”

113. “We come to Selma to be renewed. We come to be inspired. We come to be reminded that we must do the work that justice and equality calls us to do.” —on the importance of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March, during the 50th-anniversary celebration in 2015

114. “The Joy and The Peace of God”, Teachings & Quotes from Leaders (Tim Keller, Hearts in Christ, Sanctification)

115. “Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back.” – John Lewis

116. “The government, both state and federal, has a duty to be reasonable and accommodating.”

117. “I have fought too hard and for too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I've heard the reasons for opposing civil marriage for same-sex couples. Cut through the distractions, and they stink of the same fear, hatred and intolerance I have known in racism and in bigotry.”

118. “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” – John Lewis

119. “Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.” —from Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

120. “When growing up, I saw segregation. I saw racial discrimination. I saw those signs that said white men, colored men. White women, colored women. White waiting. And I didn't like it.”

121. “You have to be persistent. Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.”

122. “It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.”

123. It is not your business to succeed, but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God.

124. “I was so inspired by Dr. King that in 1956 with my brothers and sisters and first cousins, I was only 16 years old, we went down to the public library trying to check out some books and we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for colors! It was a public library! I never went back to that public library until July 5th, 1998, by this time I'm in the Congress, for a book signing of my book "Walking with the Wind"”

125. “As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience.”

126. “We must be headlights and not taillights.” — John Lewis

127. “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim, or diminish your light.“

128. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” — John Lewis

129. “We have been too quiet for too long. There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time.”

130. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

131. "Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” — Congressman John Lewis

132. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until, we end hatred and division.” — John Lewis

133. These young people are saying we all have a right to know what is in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, and the food we eat. It is our responsibility to leave this planet cleaner and greener. That must be our legacy.

134. “A true and safe leader is likely to be one who has no desire to lead, but is forced into a position of leadership by the inward pressure of the Holy Spirit and the press of the external situation. Such were Moses and David and the Old Testament prophets. I think there was hardly a great leader from Paul to the present day but that was drafted by the Holy Spirit for the task, and commissioned by the Lord of the Church to fill a position he had little heart for. I believe it might be accepted as a fairly reliable rule of thumb that the man who is ambitious to lead is disqualified as a leader. The true leader will have no desire to lord it over God’s heritage, but will be humble, gentle, self-sacrificing, and altogether as ready to follow as to lead, when the Spirit makes it clear that a wiser and more gifted man than himself has appeared.” — A.W. Tozer

135. “I grew up. . . in a very loving, wonderful family: wonderful mother, wonderful father. We attended church; we went to Sunday school every Sunday.” —John Lewis

136. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves until we end hatred and division.” — John Lewis

137. “I have seen this restlessness among the people before. It was in another millennium, another decade, and at another time in our history, but it pushed through America like a storm. In ten short years, there was a tempest that transformed what the American Revolution did not address, what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were afraid to confront, what the Civil War could not unravel, what Reconstruction tried to mediate, and Jim Crow did its best to retrench. This mighty wind made a fundamental shift in the moral character of our nation that has reached every sector of our society. And this history lends us one very powerful reminder today: Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.”

138. “each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.”

139. “Jails and prisons are designed to break human beings, to convert the population into specimens in a zoo — obedient to our keepers, but dangerous to each other.” — Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography

140. “We’re one people, and we all live in the same house. Not the American house, but the world house.” – John Lewis

141. “What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.”

142. “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.” – john lewis quotes on voting

143. “We need comprehensive immigration reform. Dr. King wouldn’t be pleased at all to know that there are millions of people living in the shadow, living in fear in places like Georgia and Alabama.” – John Lewis

144. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.”

145. “My dear friends: Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”

146. “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”

147. “A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.” — Leonard Ravenhill

148. “When I was 15 years old in the tenth grade, I heard Martin Luther King, Jr. Three years later, when I was 18, I met Dr. King and we became friends. Two years after that I became very involved in the civil rights movement. I was in college at the time. As I got more and more involved, I saw politics as a means of bringing about change”

149. “The government, both state and federal, has a duty to be reasonable and accommodating.“

150. “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” — John Lewis

151. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” —John Lewis from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 1, 2020

152. “Rioting is not a movement. It is not an act of civil disobedience. I think it is a mistake for people to consider disorganized action, mayhem, and attacks on other people and property as an extension of any kind of movement. It is not. It is simply an explosion of emotion. That's all. There is nothing constructive about it. It is destructive.”

153. “I believed innocently and profoundly as a child that the world could be a better place.” – John Lewis

154. “The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society.” — John Lewis

155. If a man thinks he is not conceited, he is very conceited indeed.

156. “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” —BUDDHA”

157. “Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.”

158. “The Glory of God”, J.I.Packer expounds on Jonathan Edward’s treatise (Enjoying God, Hope, Heavenly Joy, Grace)

159. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.”

160. “Speak up, speak out, get in the way,” Lewis urged the crowd(Opens in a new tab) from that notorious bridge, a few months before his death. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

161. “When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don’t speak out ain’t nobody going to speak out for you.” — Fannie Lou Hamer

162. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.“

163. “Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness.” – John Lewis

164. “When people tell me nothing has changed, I say come walk in my shoes and I will show you change.”

165. “Black men and women were not allowed to register to vote. My own mother, my own father, my grandfather, and my uncles and aunts could not register to vote because each time they attempted to register to vote, they were told they could not pass the literacy test.” —John Lewis quote from a 2009 NPR interview

166. Here's a More Effective (and Ethical) Approach to Tracking Employee Productivity.

167. “We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.”

168. “If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if your consistent, you will succeed”

169. “We must bring the issue of mental illness out into the sunlight, out of the shadow, out of the closet, deal with it, treat people, have centers where people can get the necessary help.” – John Lewis

170. We are what we believe we are.

171. “If someone had told me in 1963 that one day I would be in Congress, I would have said, 'You're crazy. You don't know what you're talking about.”

172. “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet. Governments and corporations do not live. They have no power, no capacity in and of themselves. They are given life and derive all their authority from their ability to assist, benefit, and transform the lives of the people they touch. All authority emanates from the consent of the governed and the satisfaction of the customer.”

173. “I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century.It’s time to lay it down.We all came here in different ships, but now we’re all in the same boat.”

174. John Lewis Quotes (SENATOR)

175. “Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on.” — Thurgood Marshall, 1978 University of Virginia commencement speech

176. “People come up to me in airports, they walk into the office, and they say, ‘I’m going to cry; I’m going to pass out.’ And I say, ‘Please don’t pass out; I’m not a doctor.'” – John Lewis

177. “If we are truly to learn the lessons of the Civil Rights Movement, the Holocaust, or the conflict in Northern Ireland, we must concede that discomfort breeds dislike, dislike breeds disdain, disdain breeds contempt, and contempt breeds hate.”

178. “What can you do to get into good trouble? There is a light inside of you that will turn on when you get into good trouble. You will feel emboldened and freed. You will realize that unjust laws cannot stop you. These laws cannot stop the truth that is in your heart and soul.”

179. “Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?“

180. “We in the movement decided to actualize our belief that the hatred we experienced was not based on any truth, but was actually an illusion in the minds of those who hated us.”

181. “President Eisenhower warned us decades ago against feeding the enormous appetite of the military industrial complex. And since that time we have disregarded the admonition of a president and a general and proceeded to revolve our entire economy around the industries of”

182. “Faith is being so sure of what the spirit has whispered in your heart that your belief in its eventuality is unshakable.” — John Lewis

183. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” – john l lewis quotes

184. “Some people have told me that I am a rare bird in the blue sky of dreamers.” – John Lewis

185. “Some people have told me that I am a rare bird in the blue sky of dreamers.” — John Lewis

186. “Black men and women were not allowed to register to vote. My own mother, my own father, my grandfather and my uncles and aunts could not register to vote because each time they attempted to register to vote, they were told they could not pass the literacy test.” – John Lewis

187. “What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.” — John Lewis

188. NOTHING THAT YOU HAVE NOT GIVEN AWAY WILL EVER BE REALLY YOURS.

189. “I believe in nonviolence as a way of life, as a way of living.”

190. “It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand”

191. “He graduated from Morehouse at nineteen, and by the time he was twenty-three years old he held a doctorate in divinity from Boston College and a degree in divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary. He never forgot his purpose or his people in his work, and he used the mandates of graduate research to begin developing his own brand of social gospel. In his quest, he made it a point to study the work of all the major theologians and philosophers who might have had any bearing on his thesis. He also branched out beyond his comfort zone, as any credible scholar would, to study influential ideas of the time that were antithetical to his beliefs, like the work of Marx, Lenin, and Nietzsche. He examined every possible angle to find the theological answers to the questions he was asking, and he emerged in his study as a notable student and a compelling scholar.”

192. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

193. “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim, or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.” – john lewis civil rights movement quotes

194. “When I was a student, I studied philosophy and religion. I talked about being patient. Some people say I was too hopeful, too optimistic, but you have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence.”

195. “Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.” — John Lewis

196. “We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.“

197. “If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take the long hard look and just believe that if you’re consistent, you will succeed.” – John Lewis

198. “I remember back in the 1960s—late ’50s, really—reading a comic book called ‘Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Story.’ Fourteen pages. It sold for 10 cents. And this little book inspired me to attend non-violence workshops, to study about Gandhi, about Thoreau, to study Martin Luther King, Jr., to study civil disobedience.” —John Lewis quote from the 50th anniversary on Selma, 2015

199. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves until we end hatred and division.“

200. “I remember back in the 1960s – late ’50s, really – reading a comic book called ‘Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Story.’ Fourteen pages. It sold for 10 cents. And this little book inspired me to attend non-violence workshops, to study about Gandhi, about Thoreau, to study Martin Luther King, Jr., to study civil disobedience.” – John Lewis

201. “Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once. In the movement, we didn't know how history would play itself out. When we were getting arrested and waiting in jail or standing in unmovable lines on the courthouse steps, we didn’t know what would happen, but we knew it had to happen.

202. “The very serious function of racism…is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says that you have no art so you dredge that up. Somebody says that you have no kingdoms and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary.” — Toni Morrison, A Humanist View

203. “We will stand up for what is right, for what is fair and what is just. Health care is a right and not a privilege.”

204. “Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me”. —Jim Elliot

205. “I learned that racism, like most systems of oppression, isn’t about bad people doing terrible things to people who are different from them but instead is a way of maintaining power for certain groups at the expense of others.” ― Alicia Garza, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart

206. “Whenever the people finally reject the efforts to fragment their collective energies into warring factions and remember their divine union with one another, when they throw off material distractions and irrelevant negativity and hear their souls speak with one voice, they will rise up. And whatever is in their path will either transform or transpire.”

207. Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once. In the movement, we didn't know how history would play itself out. When we were getting arrested and waiting in jail or standing in unmovable lines on the courthouse steps, we didn’t know what would happen, but we knew it had to happen.

208. “To make it hard, to make it difficult, almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.” – John Lewis”

209. “Each and every one of us has the power to turn our enemies around because we are all a spark of the divine. It does not matter whether we are fit or weak, short and scrawny, or big and strong. There is no adversary who can defeat us if we believe in our own inner capacity to overcome. Sometimes we have to gain tools to overcome our adversaries. We might need to study, to get help, to pray, or develop a plan, but there is no obstacle we as human beings cannot overcome.”

210. “We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house… and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.” —on his decision to choose love

211. “My parents told me in the very beginning as a young child when I raised the question about segregation and racial discrimination, they told me not to get in the way, not to get in trouble, not to make any noise.”

212. “You are the light. Never let anyone — any person or any force — dampen, dim or diminish your light.” – John Lewis

213. “We were very aware that our civility demonstrated above all the absurdity of brutalizing peaceful, law-abiding citizens and detaining them from exercising their constitutional rights.”

214. “The very first thing which needs to be said about Christian ministers of all kinds is that they are “under” people as their servants rather than “over” them (as their leaders, let alone their lords). Jesus made this absolutely plain. The chief characteristic of Christian leaders, he insisted, is humility not authority, and gentleness not power”. –-John Stott

215. “The three Cs of spiritual leadership are Character, Competency, and Confidence. Character must lead.” “Humility is the most important attribute of character”. “If you lead with confidence, your competency is going to be exposed.” “The hardest person that you will ever lead is yourself”. “A good leader is a great listener”. –Tom Holliday, Alexandria Presbyterian Church

216. ×

217. “America, a nation destined for greatness but tarnished by a persistent, nagging untruth” – John Lewis

218. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.

219. “Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.”

220. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.” —John Lewis quote at the same Black Lives Matter protest. These are more inspiring Christian quotes to inspire you every day.

221. “Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”

222. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.” – John Lewis

223. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.” ~ Congressman John Lewis

224. “The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society.” – John Lewis

225. “To make it hard, to make it difficult, almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.“

226. “Governments and corporations do not live. They have no power, no capacity in and of themselves. They are given life and derive all their authority from their ability to assist, benefit, and transform the lives of the people they touch. All authority emanates from the consent of the governed and the satisfaction of the customer.” – john lewis civil rights quotes

227. “Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until, we end hatred and division.”

228. “Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.” – John Lewis

229. “I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama for the right to vote. I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us.” —John Lewis quote from the 50th anniversary at the March on Washington, August 2013

230. “Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.” – John Lewis

231. “Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.” – John Lewis.

232. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.” — John Lewis

233. “We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.” — John Lewis

234. “The only reason unjust systems exist is that the masses of people silently give their consent and believe these systems are necessary—whether for their security or survival.”

235. “I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” ― Rosa Parks said on her 77th birthday

236. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” – John Lewis

237. “What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and it’s grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.“

238. “I believe that you see something that you want to get done, You can not give you, and you cannot give in.” – john lewis quotes “never give up!”

239. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

240. “We no longer dwell in that daydream. We were shaken to realism by the harshness of what we have witnessed in the last few years—the vilification of President Obama, a drive to wreck his legacy and undo the progress we have made as a nation in the last hundred years, a disdain for the sick and the poor, militarization of the police, and the weaponizing of government not to serve as an advocate, but as an agent of oppression and compliance.”

241. “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.” – john lewis quotes civil rights movement

242. “If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.”

243. “A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.”

244. “A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.” — John Lewis said of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

245. “I would say the country is a different country. It is a better country. The signs I saw when I was growing up are gone and they will not return. In many ways, the walls of segregation have been torn down.” – John Lewis

246. “Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.” – John Lewis

247. “My greatest fear is that one day we may wake up and our democracy is gone.” — John Lewis quote from the documentary, “John Lewis: Good Trouble”.

248. “We must be headlights and not taillights.” – congressman john lewis quotes

249. “I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or hateful.“

250. “It’s a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.” — John Lewis

251. “We need some creative tension; people crying out for the things they want.” – John Lewis

252. “Faith; Rejoicing in Grace”, from Martin Lloyd Jones (Overcome, Trusting God, True Courage)

253. “Even if toxic people are right about what is “good,” they are wrong if the approach is not healthy.”– John Lewis Lund

254. Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.

255. “The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society.”

256. “Too many of us still believe our differences define us.“

257. “We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jails over and over again. And then you holler, ‘Be patient.’ How long can we be patient?” – John Lewis

258. “The reward for playing jazz is playing jazz.”

259. “We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.” – John Lewis

260. The Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays.

261. “Martin Luther King Jr. was much more than a dreamer. He believed that faith had no meaning unless it had the power to resolve the problems of our daily lives.”

262. “Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble… good trouble, necessary trouble.” — John Lewis

263. “Faith, to me, is knowing in the solid core of your soul that the work is already done, even as an idea is being conceived in your mind. It is being as sure as you are about your dreams as you are about anything you know as a hard fact.”

264. “The first order of things to be changed is me, the leader. After I consider how hard it is to change myself, then I will understand the challenge of trying to change others. This is the ultimate test of leadership”. – John Maxwell

265. “Christian Servant Leadership -Quotes, and Scripture” from C.S. Lewis & Servant Leaders (humility, shepherding, servant of God)

266. “I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century. It’s time to lay it down. We all came here in different ships, but now we’re all in the same boat.” – John Lewis

267. “We are one people; we are only family. And when we finally accept these truths, then we will be able to fulfill Dr. King’s dream to build a beloved community, a nation, and a world at peace with itself.” – John Lewis

268. “Before we went on any protest, whether it was sit-ins or the freedom rides or any march, we prepared ourselves, and we were disciplined. We were committed to the way of peace – the way of non-violence – the way of love – the way of life as the way of living.” – john lewis protesting quotes

269. “Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.”—MOTHER TERESA”

270. “Soul force is the ability to counter the forces of injustice with fearlessness, knowing that your soul is connected to the greatest force in the universe. Threats, violence, and aggression are simply tools that are used to make us doubt our capacity to overcome.”

271. “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.” — John Lewis in a 2019 CommonWealth Interview

272. “Christian Servant Leadership; Qualities, Quotes, and Scripture”, from C.S. Lewis & Servant Leaders (Humility, Shepherding, Character)

273. “Obama is not an African American president, but a president of all Americans. It doesn’t matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, he’s the president of all races.“

274. “Use the words of the movement to pace yourself. We used to say that ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. And if we believe in the change we seek, then it is easy to commit to doing all we can because the responsibility is ours alone to build a better society and a more peaceful world.”- john lewis quotes cold war.

275. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.” —John Lewis quote at the same Black Lives Matter protest. These are more inspiring Christian quotes to inspire you every day.

276. “When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?’ For some, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.” —on the impeachment of Donald Trump in 2019

277. “To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we have long said that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now! We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again. And then you holler, ‘Be patient.’ How long can we be patient? We want our freedom, and we want it now.” —on the emotional toll of fighting for freedom, during his 1963 speech at the March on Washington

278. “As it stands now, the voting section of this bill will not help the thousands of black people who want to vote,” Lewis said. “It will not help the citizens of Mississippi, of Alabama, and Georgia who are qualified to vote but lack a sixth-grade education. One man, one vote is the African cry. It is ours, too. It must be ours.” — John Lewis quote from the 1963 March on Washington

279. “We have been too quiet for too long. There comes a time when you have to say something. You have to make a little noise. You have to move your feet. This is the time.” — At the House sit-in after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, 2016

280. Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.

281. A man I admire and respect - Congressman John Lewis, an American hero, made allegations that Sarah Palin and I were somehow associated with the worst chapter in American history, segregation, deaths of children in church bombings, George Wallace. That, to me, was so hurtful. - Author: John McCain

282. “Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be—you get out and push, and you pull, and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of goodwill in power to act.” —John Lewis quote from A Conversation With Bill Moyers, 2013

283. “Heart of Peace”, a poem by L. Willows (Heart of God, Overcome, Blessing, True Peace)

284. “Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.” – John Lewis

285. “Sometimes I hear people saying, ‘Nothing has changed.’ Come and walk in my shoes.”

286. “We need to make books available to children so they can easily learn about the world, and they can follow their imaginations. Children who read maintain their sense of wonder and ask questions—necessary questions—that make us examine why things are the way they are.”

287. “The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something. – john lewis famous quotes.

288. “I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.” — Muhammad Ali, 1976

289. “By the force of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them back together in the image of God and democracy.”

290. “When I was a student, I studied philosophy and religion. I talked about being patient. Some people say I was too hopeful, too optimistic, but you have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence.” – John Lewis

291. A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served.

292. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” – quotes by john lewis

293. “The vote controls everything that you do.” – John Lewis

294. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

295. “Ornette Coleman is doing the only really new thing in jazz since the innovations in the mid-forties of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and those of Thelonious Monk”

296. “I believe that you see something that you want to get done, You can not give you, and you cannot give in.” — John Lewis

297. “Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.” — John Lewis

298. “We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.”

299. “No government, no multinational corporation, no agency at all could counter the mandates of a unified world community. And that is why so much energy and resources are invested in division and separation.”

300. “It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds and thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets to speak up, to speak out, to get into what I call good trouble, but to get in the way. And because of the action of young and old, Black, white, Latino, Asian-American and Native American, because people cried and prayed, people will never, ever forget what happened and how it happened, and it is my hope that we are on our way to greater change.” —on Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s death

301. “there is a power that can raise you up even from the lowliest of places and guide you to the forefront of change if you truly want to create a better world.”

302. “If someone had told me in 1963 that one day I would be in Congress, I would have said, ‘You’re crazy. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” – John Lewis

303. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” –-Martin Luther King Jr.

304. “When you lose your sense of fear you’re free.” – john lewis fear quotes

305. “I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.” — John Lewis

306. “CHRISTIAN SERVANT LEADERSHIP -QUOTES AND SCRIPTURE”, C.S. LEWIS & CHRISTIAN LEADERS (HUMILITY, SHEPHERDING, SERVANTS OF GOD)

307. “I believe that you see something that you want to get done, You can not give you, and you cannot give in.” — John Lewis

308. “To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.” —The Atlantic interview, 2012

309. “I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.” – John Lewis

310. “Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice.”

311. “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”

312. “To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we have long said that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now! We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.” — John Lewis quote from the 1963 March on Washington

313. “The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.”

314. “The vote is precious. It’s almost sacred, so go out and vote like you never voted before.” – John Lewis

315. I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or hateful.

316. “Informed activism requires reading the newspaper, tracking bills through the Library of Congress’s THOMAS website, and watching legislative debates on C-SPAN. It also means learning which legislators on all levels sit on committees that affect your issue.”

317. “If you ask me whether the election of Barack Obama is the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream, I say, ‘No, it’s just a down payment.” – John Lewis

318. “These young people are saying we all have a right to know what is in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, and the food we eat. It is our responsibility to leave this planet cleaner and greener. That must be our legacy.”

319. “To make it hard, to make it difficult, almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.” – John Lewis

320. “The government, both state and federal, has a duty to be reasonable and accommodating.” – John Lewis

321. “We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are Black or White, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.” — U.S. Congress, 2017

322. “According to Scripture, virtually everything that truly qualifies a person for leadership is directly related to character. It’s not about style, status, personal charisma, clout, or worldly measurements of success. Integrity is the main issue that makes the difference between a good leader and a bad one”. –John MacArthur

323. “I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” — Malcolm X

324. “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

325. “There’s a quote of Dr. King’s that I use from time to time, which I rephrase: “To be bold, to be creative, to never give up, and never to hate—for hate is too big a burden to bear. I have decided to love.”

326. “Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” – John Lewis

327. “When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something. To do something. Our children and their children will ask us, ‘What did you do? What did you say?’ For some, this vote may be hard. But we have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.”

328. Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part.

329. “We need some creative tension; people crying out for the things they want.” — John Lewis

330. “Despite everything that has happened, regardless of the pain of their loss, despite all the other nonviolent peaceful warriors who suffered and sometimes fell, I have never once considered giving up or giving out. I could not let myself get lost in a sea of despair, because I had faith that the truth is bigger than all humanity. The tragedy of their loss was a crisis of faith, but in that struggle I discovered that you can kill a Medgar Evers or a Jimmie Lee Jackson. You can kill three civil rights workers named Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. You can bomb four innocent little girls in church on a Sunday morning. You can even kill three of the finest leaders of the twentieth century, but you cannot kill the truth they represented. The truth marches on; it is not connected to the life of any one individual. When a person dies, the dream does not die. You can kill a man, but the truth that he stood for will never die.”

331. “It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.”

332. “The heart of the learner is humble, the student is not above his master, he must learn to lead, Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”. “You offer yourself to Him. We do that to the Power to make ourselves Holy. Without Effort. It is His Effort. Not our own. It is Divine Power.” —Tom Holliday, Alexandria Presbyterian Church

333. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” —NELSON MANDELA”

334. “One of the problems with discipleship is you can’t hide…You have to be a Godly person”. “Natural temperament always has a dark side because it participates in your idols”. “Unless you’re really a Godly person, discipleship will not work because people aren’t going to believe you”. “You can’t lead them where you are not yourself”. —Tim Keller

335. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.

336. “It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.“

337. “I loved going to the library. It was the first time I ever saw Black newspapers and magazines like JET, Ebony, the Baltimore Afro-American, or the Chicago Defender. And I’ll never forget my librarian.”

338. “We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house… and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.” – John Lewis.

339. “What is the purpose of a nation if not to empower human beings to live better together than they could individually? When government fails to meet the basic needs of humanity for food, shelter, clothing, and even more important—the room to grow and evolve—the people will begin to rely on one another, to pool their resources and rise above the artificial limitations of tradition or law. Each of us has something significant to contribute to society be it physical, material, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual”

340. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”― John Lewis

341. The next best thing to being wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are.

342. “Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.” – John Lewis

343. “I want to see young people in America feel the spirit of the 1960s and find a way to get in the way. To find a way to get in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble.” – John Lewis

344. “Martin Luther King Jr. said that peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.” — John Lewis

345. “I say to people today, 'You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.”

346. “Prayer; Filling our Souls with Heaven” by David MacIntyre, author of The Hidden Life of Prayer (Near to God, Ascent of the Soul, Prayer Resources)

347. “Now we have black and white elected officials working together. Today, we have gone beyond just passing laws. Now we have to create a sense that we are one community, one family. Really, we are the American family. ” –John Lewis

348. “In the past the great majority of minority voters, in Ohio and other places that means African American voters, cast a large percentage of their votes during the early voting process.”

349. “Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope.” — John Lewis

350. You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone — any person or any force — dampen, dim or diminish your light … Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won.

351. “Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread, and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.” ― Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed

352. “Lynching and vigilantism were considered duties, the necessary protection of men who were guarding the sanctity of social boundaries and the “purity” of their lineage. No matter the rationale, these ideas put a virtuous face on centuries of brutal history that actually robbed our aggressors of their moral grounding and made them creative participants in violence.”

353. Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.

354. “The events in Prague, together with the Berlin blockade, convinced the European recipients of American economic assistance that they needed military protection as well: that led them to request the creation of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which committed the United States for the first time ever to the peacetime defense of Western Europe.”

355. “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim, or diminish your light.” — John Lewis

356. “Covenant Prayer from Valley of Vision”, Puritan Prayer (Lordship of Jesus Christ, Promise, Blessing)

357. “Malcolm (X) talked about the need to shift our focus from race to class, both among one another and between ourselves and the white community. He said he believed that was the root of our problems, not just in America, but all over the world. Malcolm was saying, in effect, that it is a struggle for the poor -- for those who have been left out and left behind -- and that it transcends race.”

358. “Sometimes I hear people saying, ‘Nothing has changed.’ Come and walk in my shoes.” — John Lewis

359. “Selma helped make it possible for hundreds and thousands of people in the South to become registered voters and encouraged people all across America to become participants in a democratic process.” USA Today interview, 2015

360. “Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” – John Lewis Quotes.

361. “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.” – John Lewis

362. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

363. “When growing up, I saw segregation. I saw racial discrimination. I saw those signs that said white men, colored men. White women, colored women. White waiting. And I didn’t like it.“

364. “Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. And if we believe in the change we seek, then it is easy to commit to doing all we can, because the responsibility is ours alone to build a better society and a more peaceful world.”

365. “The power of faith is transformative. It can be utilized in your own personal life to change your individual condition, and it can be used as a lifeline of spiritual strength to change a nation.”

366. “We saw that our attackers were also victims, victims of a negative indoctrination that taught the false values of superiority and inferiority, the sanction of violence and brutality, and the justification of inhumanity and hate.”

367. THERE ARE FAR, FAR BETTER THINGS AHEAD THAN ANY WE LEAVE BEHIND.

368. “When people tell me nothing has changed, I say come walk in my shoes and I will show you change.” – John Lewis

369. “The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.” PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly interview 2004

370. “Rosa Parks inspired me to find a way to get in the way, to get in trouble… good trouble, necessary trouble.” – John Lewis

371. “Before we went on any protest, whether it was sit-ins or the freedom rides or any march, we prepared ourselves, and we were disciplined. We were committed to the way of peace – the way of non-violence – the way of love – the way of life as the way of living.” – John Lewis

372. “Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” — John Lewis

373. “During the 1960s, we protested with non-violent methods. There is something peaceful, cleansing, and wholesome about being orderly and not threatening.”

374. “to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves. We must be the change we seek if we are to effectively demand transformation from others.”

375. “Whatever good work you do, whatever powerful, profound work—do it because it’s right or because it’s necessary. Do it to make change for the better. Do it because you know you must. Don’t do it for credit.”

376. “I was so inspired by Dr. King that in 1956 with my brothers and sisters and first cousins, I was only 16 years old, we went down to the public library trying to check out some books and we were told by the librarian that the library was for whites only and not for colors! It was a public library! I never went back to that public library until July 5th, 1998, by this time I’m in the Congress, for a book signing of my book “Walking with the Wind”

377. “I believe race is too heavy a burden to carry into the 21st century. It’s time to lay it down. We all came here in different ships, but now we’re all in the same boat.”

378. “When we set our minds against one another, when we focus on destructive energy and propagate the negative notions of separation, division, discrimination, rejection, domination, and war, we waste our power in a futile attempt to debase, degrade, and even destroy the light in others.”

379. “You have to be persistent. Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.” — John Lewis

380. “It is the responsibility, yet the individual choice, of each of us to use the light we have to dispel the work of darkness, because if we do not, then the power of falsehood rises. Through our inaction it becomes stronger, and a more potent force. It can even lead to the dimming of the light of all humanity born on this planet.”

381. “Too many of us still believe our differences define us.”

382. “You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.” — John Lewis

383. “The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.”–Robert K. Greenleaf

384. “Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be—you get out and push, and you pull, and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of goodwill in power to act.“ —on his continuing dedication to nonviolence and brotherly love, as he reflected on the March on Washington with Bill Moyers

385. “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something. —on seeking truth, justice and equality

386. “It’s a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.” – John Lewis

387. “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim, or diminish your light.”

388. “Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time.”

389. “We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house… and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”

390. “I really believe that all of us, as Americans… we all need to be treated like fellow human beings.”

391. “To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.”

392. “Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.” —PBS News Hour 2012

393. “America, a nation destined for greatness but tarnished by a persistent, nagging untruth”

394. “Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power.”

395. “You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don't be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.”

396. “You have to tell the whole truth, the good and the bad, maybe some things that are uncomfortable for some people.” – John Lewis

397. “There’s nothing wrong with a little agitation for what’s right or what’s fair.” – John Lewis

398. “We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We've come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself.”

399. “We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against.”

400. “When you lose your sense of fear you’re free.”