“Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.”

The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.

Concentration is inspiration. You must be completely overtaken by your work and your subject. Only then do all your influences and experience come up to the surface.

It’s ironic that those who till the soil, cultivate and harvest the fruits, vegetables, and other foods that fill your tables with abundance have nothing left for themselves.

The love for justice that is in us is not only the best part of our being but it is also the most true to our nature.

Never, never is it possible to reach someone if you become angry or bitter only love and gentleness can do it. Maybe not this time but maybe the next or the hundredth time.

It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.

You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.

I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us to be men!

Nonviolence is really tough. You don’t practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.

The people united will never be defeated.

When any person suffers for someone in greater need, that person is a human.

We believe that unions have always been about much more than the industries in which they operate. The fight is never about grapes or lettuce, It is always about people.

Our very lives are dependent, for sustenance, on the sweat and sacrifice of the campesinos. Children of farm workers should be as proud of their parents’ professions as other children are of theirs.

In the no-nonsense school of adversity, which we did not choose for ourselves, we are learning how to operate a labor union.

Mental toughness is a state of mind – you could call it character in action.

A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.

I prefer other people to make judgments about the way I play and to characterize me, rather me describe myself.

Don’t let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth – don’t let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.

Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty – he has suffered longer.

I want friends, not admirers. People who respect me for my character and my deeds, not my flattering smile.