“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.”

What I do shows people what kind of person I am.

When workers fall back on violence, they are lost. Oh, they might win some of their demands and might end a strike a little earlier, but they give up their imagination, their creativity, their will to work hard and to suffer for what they believe is right.

A symbol is an important thing. That is why we chose an Aztec eagle. It gives pride. When people see it they know it means dignity.

In 1968, I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do.

True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.

We need to help students and parents cherish and preserve the ethnic and cultural diversity that nourishes and strengthens this community – and this nation.

If we are full of hatred, we can’t really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan.

When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again.

In some cases non-violence requires more militancy than violence.

I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom.

Being of service is not enough. You must become a servant of the people. When you do, you can demand their commitment in return.

Organizing is an educational process. The best educational process in the union is the picket line and the boycott. You learn about life.

To make a great dream come true, the first requirement is a great capacity to dream; the second is persistence.

Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.

We’ll organize workers in this movement as long as we’re willing to sacrifice. The moment we stop sacrificing, we stop organizing.

There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance.

Experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire.

We become happier not by accumulating more things but by creating richer experiences.

The goal is not to simply eliminate the bad, which does nothing more than leave you with a vacuum, but to pursue and experience the best in the world.

The quality of success you will experience in your life ultimately depends upon the tiny choices you make every minute of every hour of every day.

God is using all of your experiences, both good and bad, to develop your character to match your calling.

Radical Acceptance is the willingness to experience ourselves and our lives as it is.

There are no mistakes in life, only lessons. There is no such thing as a negative experience, only opportunities to grow, learn and advance along the road of self-mastery. From struggle comes strength. Even pain can be a wonderful teacher.

To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I define this as true love.