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

Music is a universal language.

Even in the civil rights movement, there were so many unbelievable women. They never, ever received the credit that they should have received. They did all of the, and I cannot say it, they did all of the dirty work. Hard work.

I believe that teachers – whether in elementary schools, at the secondary level, or at colleges and universities – every teacher deserves the Nobel Peace Prize just for maintaining order in our schools!

We built a coalition of conscience, and that we can do it again, and we can go forward, and help redeem the soul of America.

You cannot give up – you have to be persistent and keep pushing, and press on.

Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we’ve come and the progress we’ve made.

Non violence as a way of life, a way of living, not simply as a technique or a tactic.

Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It’s all going to work out.

You have to have the capacity and the ability to take what people did, and how they did it, and forgive them and move on.

Every single vote is precious.

We never gave up. We didn’t get lost in a sea of despair. We kept the faith. We kept pushing and pulling. We kept marching. And we made some progress.

We must do the work that justice and equality calls us to do.

I think all Americans should be hopeful, and try to be optimistic.

There is a need for a movement of non-violent direct action.

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

You have to go with your gut sometimes, and how you feel.

Do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

Never hesitate to seek help when necessary.

Every day the increasing weight of years admonishes me more and more, that the shade of retirement is as necessary to me as it will be welcome.

There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion.

It is impossible to concieve of this immense and wonderful universe as the result of blind chance or necessity.

The constant struggle in mature life, I think, is to accept the necessity of tragedy and conflict, and not to try to escape to some falsely simple solution which does not include these more somber complexities.