Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) is an American activist for the rights of children. She has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She is president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.
Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Marian Wright Edelman
It’s time for greatness—not for greed. It’s a time for idealism—not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Ideals, Greed, Justice, Action
You really can change the world if you care enough.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Change, Attitude
Education remains one of the black community’s most enduring values. It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Poverty
So often we dwell on the things that seem impossible rather than on the things that are possible. So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Possibilities, Thankfulness
My faith has been the driving thing of my life. I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Community
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Foresight, Little Things, Kindness, Purpose, One Step at a Time, Meaning, Things
You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Justice
Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Kindness
You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Doing Your Best, Trying, Winning
Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Service, Purpose
Never work just for money or for power. They won’t save your soul or help you sleep at night.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Work
No person has the right to rain on your dreams.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Dreams
The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Challenges, Justice, Community
If we think we have ours and don’t owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Realism, Humanity
The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people’s children.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Parents
If you don’t like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Obligation, Change
No one, Eleanor Roosevelt said, can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it.
—Marian Wright Edelman
Topics: Confidence
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