“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.”

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.

The end of all knowledge must be the building up of character.

You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.

The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God.

Our language is the reflection of ourselves.

When you sacrifice, you force others to sacrifice. It’s an extremely powerful weapon.

We have looked into the future and the future is ours.

When you have people together who believe in something very strongly – whether it’s religion or politics or unions – things happen.

Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.

Do not romanticize the poor. We are all people, human beings subject to the same temptations and faults as all others. Our poverty damages our dignity.

Students must have initiative; they should not be mere imitators. They must learn to think and act for themselves – and be free.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

Experience is a truer guide than the words of others.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.

I still think that the greatest suffering is being lonely, feeling unloved, just having no one. That is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome.

I ain’t scared of the fall. I’ve felt the ground before.

I ain’t scared of the fall. I’ve felt the ground before.

Whatever your goal in life, the beginning is knowledge and experience.