Quotes from John Lewis

Dr. King was one of the most inspiring human beings I ever met. He was such a warm, compassionate, and loving human being.

The press is supposed to serve as a check on government.

This man [ Donald Trump] won in an electoral landslide.

The reward for playing jazz is playing jazz.

It was not enough to come and listen to a great sermon or message every Sunday morning and be confined to those four walls and those four corners. You had to get out and do something.

We will stand up for what is right, for what is fair and what is just. Health care is a right and not a privilege.

Not one of us can rest, be happy, be at home, be at peace with ourselves, until we end hatred and division.

But you have to have hope. You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.

You must be bold, brave, and courageous and find a way... to get in the way.

Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I'm on today.

If someone had told me in 1963 that one day I would be in Congress, I would have said, 'You're crazy. You don't know what you're talking about.'

Without prayer, without faith in the Almighty, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.

It's a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.

The vote controls everything that you do.

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. made me very, very sad, and I mourned and I cried like many of our citizens did.

When I was a student, I studied philosophy and religion. I talked about being patient. Some people say I was too hopeful, too optimistic, but you have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence.

Without our faith, we wouldn't have been able to succeed. On many occasions, before we'd go out on a sit-in, before we went on the freedom ride, before we marched from Selma to Montgomery, we would sing a song or say a prayer. Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful.

Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back.

We must bring the issue of mental illness out into the sunlight, out of the shadow, out of the closet, deal with it, treat people, have centers where people can get the necessary help.

Before we went on any protest, whether it was sit-ins or the freedom rides or any march, we prepared ourselves, and we were disciplined. We were committed to the way of peace - the way of non-violence - the way of love - the way of life as the way of living.

We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn't matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.

Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.

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

Many of us in Nashville accepted nonviolence as a way of life, a way of living, not simply as a technique or a tactic.