Quotes from Marian Wright Edelman

A nation that does not stand for its children does not stand for anything and will not stand tall in the future.

No one, Eleanor Roosevelt said, can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it.

Failure is just another way to learn how to do something right.

Hunger and malnutrition have devastating consequences for children and have been linked to low birth weight and birth defects, obesity, mental and physical health problems, and poorer educational outcomes.

Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards. We can do better. We must demand that our leaders do better.

I've always hated being hemmed in or seeing anybody being hemmed in. Even when I was the smallest child, I couldn't bear being told I couldn't drink at a so-called white drinking fountain.

Every child's life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it.

Service is what life is all about.

You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.

Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?

Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth. It's time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success.

You can achieve much in life if you don't mind doing the work and giving someone else the credit.

Parents have become so convinced that educators know what is best for their children that they forget that they themselves are really the experts.

So often we are depressed by what remains to be done and forget to be thankful for all that has been done.

It's time for greatness - not for greed. It's a time for idealism - not ideology. It is a time not just for compassionate words, but compassionate action.

If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.

There comes a time when you roll up your sleeves and put yourself at the top of your commitment list.

You just do it one step at a time.

Character, self-discipline, determination, attitude and service are the substance of life.

If things are too easy, life is a whole lot less interesting.

So much of the deep lingering sadness over President Kennedy's assassination is about the unfinished promise: unspoken speeches, unfulfilled hopes, the wondering about what might have been.

If we think we have ours and don't owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.