Quotes from Al Sharpton

As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable.

We cannot reform institutional racism or systemic policies if we are not actively engaged. It's not enough to simply complain about injustice; the only way to prevent future injustice is to create the society we would like to see, one where we are all equal under the law.

When the culture of police departments is sometimes infused with bias or preconceived ideas against certain groups, there needs to be reform and retraining throughout. And unfortunately, we cannot rely on local departments to police themselves; we need intervention from the top.

Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that police are not subject to it, or we arrest officers right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime. Either we write new laws or enforce existing ones; we cannot have it both ways.

As I stood and gave the eulogy for young Michael Brown last week, I kept thinking about the fact that this child should have been in college instead of laying in a coffin.

I've gone from, you know, being too close to politicians, to being too close to entertainers, and people's father that I'm not.

James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.

I could take all the cartoons in the tabloid newspapers, but I couldn't take my daughter punching me in the belly and asking why I was so fat. That was my inspiration to lose the weight. And probably the last time anyone hurt my feelings.

I actually lost more weight than I am!

In every era going back to Lincoln with Frederick Douglass, presidents talk to those that were leading at that time.

Life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.

I can call a march, and thousands come out, and I happen to have access to the White House at the same time.

The dream was not to put one black family in the White House, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.

Evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.

How do you make things fair?

Everything from who sits on your local board of education to the prosecutors and judicial appointments in your area and much more are all impacted by who holds political office.

I'm never going to be fat - never again. I'm going to make it easy on my pallbearers.

We are engaged in immediate conversations with the White House on deliberations over a successor whom we hope will continue in the general direction of Attorney General Holder.

I always beat the sun up in the morning. It's the secret to why I'm double trouble.

In Staten Island, when you have video showing the alleged chokehold used on Eric Garner, why not go to trial and have the officer(s) explain the tape, and then this jury can determine guilt or innocence? The tape should guarantee that there should be a trial.

I've never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known.

I've seen too much in life to give up.

We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.