It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it.
BARBARA JORDANJust remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.
More Barbara Jordan Quotes
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We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.
BARBARA JORDAN -
But this is the great danger America faces. That we will cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups: city against suburb, region against region, individual against individual. Each seeking to satisfy private wants.
BARBARA JORDAN -
The majority of the American people still believe that every single individual in this country is entitled to just as much respect, just as much dignity, as every other individual.
BARBARA JORDAN -
If you had to work in the environment of Washington, D.C., as I do, and watch those men who are so imprisoned and so confined by their eighteenth-century thought patterns, you would know that if anybody is going to be liberated, it’s men who must be liberated in this country.
BARBARA JORDAN -
I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people.’
BARBARA JORDAN -
More is required of public officials than slogans and handshakes and press releases. More is required. We must hold ourselves strictly accountable. We must provide the people with a vision of the future.
BARBARA JORDAN -
Let us heed the voice of the people and recognize their common sense. If we do not, we not only blaspheme our political heritage, we ignore the common ties that bind all Americans.
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If you’re going to play the game [politics] properly, you’d better know every rule.
BARBARA JORDAN -
For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable.
BARBARA JORDAN -
There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.
BARBARA JORDAN -
The imperative is to define what is right and do it.
BARBARA JORDAN -
I live a day at a time. Each day I look for a kernel of excitement. In the morning, I say: ‘What is my exciting thing for today?’ Then, I do the day. Don’t ask me about tomorrow.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We are a people in a quandary about the present. We are a people in search of our future. We are a people in search of a national community.
BARBARA JORDAN -
We call ourselves public servants but I’ll tell you this: we as public servants must set an example for the rest of the nation. It is hypocritical for the public official to admonish and exhort the people to uphold the common good.
BARBARA JORDAN