Top 160 Jesse Jackson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If you fall behind, run faster. Never give up, never surrender, and rise up against the odds.”

— Jesse Jackson

Featured in: Philosophical Quotes, Giving Up Quotes

2. “Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping them up.”

— Jesse Jackson

Featured in: Empathy Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Morality Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Humility Quotes

3. “The only time you should look down at someone, is when you are helping them up.”

— Jesse Jackson

Featured in: Empathy Quotes, Be Kind Quotes, Morality Quotes, Humanism Quotes, Humility Quotes

4. “When everyone is included, everyone wins.”

— Jesse Jackson

5. “Leaders must be tough enough to fight, tender enough to cry, human enough to make mistakes, humble enough to admit them, strong enough to absorb the pain, and resilient enough to bounce back and keep on moving.”

— Jesse Jackson

Featured in: Strong Quotes, Stay Strong Quotes

6. “Inclusion is not a matter of political correctness. It is the key to growth.”

— Jesse Jackson

7. “Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.”

— Jesse Jackson

8. “I am – Somebody. I may be poor, but I am – Somebody! I may be on welfare, but I am – Somebody! I may be uneducated, but I am – Somebody! I must be, I’m God’s child. I must be respected and protected. I am black and I am beautiful! I am – Somebody! Soul Power!”

— Jesse Jackson

9. “You cannot teach what you don’t know. You cannot give energy if you’re not on fire on the inside.”

— Jesse Jackson

10. “I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet.”

— Jesse Jackson

11. “Hold your head high, stick your chest out. You can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes. Keep hope alive.”

— Jesse Jackson

12. “Luck is a crossroad where preparation and opportunity meet.”

— Jesse Jackson

13. “No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high.”

— Jesse Jackson

14. “If you run, you might lose. If you don’t run, you’re guaranteed to lose.”

— Jesse Jackson

15. “At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backward by fear and division.”

— Jesse Jackson

16. “Capitalism without capital is just an ism.”

— Jesse Jackson

17. “Your children need your presence more than your presents.”

— Jesse Jackson

18. “You can’t plant a seed and pick the fruit the next morning.”

— Jesse Jackson

19. “America is not like a blanket- one piece of unbroken cloth. America is more like a quilt- many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven together by a common thread.”

— Jesse Jackson

20. “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps... then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

— Jesse Jackson

21. “Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.”

— Jesse Jackson

22. “No lie can live forever.”

— Jesse Jackson

23. “You must never stop dreaming. Face reality, yes. But don’t stop with the way things are; dream of things as they ought to be. Dream of peace. Peace is rational and reasonable. War is irrational in this age and unwinnable.”

— Jesse Jackson

24. “Leadership cannot just go along to get along. Leadership must meet the moral challenge of the day.”

— Jesse Jackson

25. “God doesn’t make orange juice, God makes oranges.”

— Jesse Jackson

26. “Our dreams must be stronger than our memories. We must be pulled by our dreams, rater than pushed by our memories.”

— Jesse Jackson

27. “Life has its dimensions in the mysterious.”

— Jesse Jackson

28. “Our dreams must be stronger than our memories.”

— Jesse Jackson

29. “People like to say don’t abort, adopt. But I’m saying don’t strip, scholarship.”

— Jesse Jackson

30. “We’ve removed the ceiling above our dreams. There are no more impossible dreams.”

— Jesse Jackson

31. “We reveal our joys and successes, we conceal our pain.”

— Jesse Jackson

32. “There is no power in cynicism. There is no forward thrust in cynicism.”

— Jesse Jackson

33. “I do not deny the allegation, I deny the allegator.”

— Jesse Jackson

34. “We live on the dash between our birth date and our death date.”

— Jesse Jackson

35. “So many bright stars, bright in life, burn out quickly.”

— Jesse Jackson

36. “Nobody will save us from us but us.”

— Jesse Jackson

37. “In politics, an organized minority is a political majority.”

— Jesse Jackson

38. “Our premise is that inclusion leads to growth. So for those who are locked out, they lose development, and those who are in power lose market and growth.”

— Jesse Jackson

39. “America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth.”

— Jesse Jackson

40. “We must know the difference between sweat and tears. Sweat is wet. Tears are wet. Sweat is salty. Tears are salty. But progress comes through sweat. Progress never came through tears.”

— Jesse Jackson

41. “A man must be willing to die for justice. Death is an inescapable reality and men die daily, but good deeds live forever.”

— Jesse Jackson

42. “We must not measure greatness from the mansion down, but from the manger up. Jesus said that we should not be judged by the bark we wear but by the fruit that we bear. Jesus said that we must measure greatness by how we treat the least of these.”

— Jesse Jackson

43. “We must never surrender. America will get better and better. Keep hope alive. Keep hope alive.”

— Jesse Jackson

44. “If there are occasions when my grape turned into a raisin and my joy bell lost its resonance, please forgive me. Charge it to my head and not to my heart.”

— Jesse Jackson

45. “So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent.”

— Jesse Jackson

46. “Today’s students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains. If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude.”

— Jesse Jackson

47. “The crisis is not an opportunity to change the character of Louisiana’s political order. We must not use the crisis to turn Louisiana into a red state – this is a rainbow state.”

— Jesse Jackson

48. “America needs young people to be inspired to choose sacrifice over greed.”

— Jesse Jackson

49. “Choose the human race over the nuclear race. Bury the weapons and don’t burn the people.”

— Jesse Jackson

50. “I know they are all environmentalists. I heard a lot of my speeches recycled.”

— Jesse Jackson

Featured in: Fun Quotes