“You are a light. You are the light. Never let anyone—any person or any force—dampen, dim or diminish your light. Study the path of others to make your way easier and more abundant. Lean toward the whispers of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. […] Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won. Choose confrontation wisely, but when it is your time don’t be afraid to stand up, speak up, and speak out against injustice. And if you follow your truth down the road to peace and the affirmation of love, if you shine like a beacon for all to see, then the poetry of all the great dreamers and philosophers is yours to manifest in a nation, a world community, and a Beloved Community that is finally at peace with itself.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: civil-rights, inspirational47 likesLike“Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America28 likesLike“Take a long, hard look down the road you will have to travel once you have made a commitment to work for change. Know that this transformation will not happen right away. Change often takes time. It rarely happens all at once. In the movement, we didn’t know how history would play itself out. When we were getting arrested and waiting in jail or standing in unmovable lines on the courthouse steps, we didn’t know what would happen, but we knew it had to happen.
Use the words of the movement to pace yourself. We used to say that ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part. And if we believe in the change we seek, then it is easy to commit to doing all we can, because the responsibility is ours alone to build a better society and a more peaceful world.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: civil-rights, inspirational9 likesLike“As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change7 likesLike“Darkness cannot overcome darkness, only light can do that. Violence can never overcome violence, only peace can do that. Hate can never overcome hate, only love can do that.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change6 likesLike“It is the responsibility, yet the individual choice, of each of us to use the light we have to dispel the work of darkness, because if we do not, the power of falsehood rises. Through our inaction it becomes stronger, and a more potent force. It can even lead to the dimming of the light of all humanity born on this planet. That is why we struggle. That is why we fight to contribute to the confirmation of what is good, to seal our compact with love within our own lives and within our world.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: darkness, falsehood, goodness, light, love, power, truth6 likesLike“But we must accept one central truth and responsibility as participants in a democracy: Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: activism, american-government, democracy, freedom, government, work6 likesLike“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change6 likesLike“We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change5 likesLike“Political parties are on the hunt to search and destroy each other, as though we were involved in some kind of enemy combat, rather than the work of statesmanship.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: american-politics, combat, enemity, political-parties, politics, statesmanship4 likesLike“It is important for upcoming activists to study American history, as well as political and philosophical thought. It is unlikely that what you hope to accomplish is new. Current activism is almost always linked to the history of revolution worldwide, and Americans have a special connection to this legacy because our nation was born out of the struggle against tyranny.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: activism, activists, american-history, change, civil-rights, revolution3 likesLike“even though the truth can’t be denied or erased, it can be systemically obscured, strategically misinterpreted, and hidden from mainstream comprehension”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change3 likesLike“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” —MOHANDAS GANDHI”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change2 likesLike“[People] are beginning to awaken to an idea we gave meaning to in the sixties: We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: civil-rights, connectedness, connections, humanity, interconnectedness2 likesLike“I have seen this restlessness among the people before. It was in another millennium, another decade, and at another time in our history, but it pushed through America like a storm. In ten short years, there was a tempest that transformed what the American Revolution did not address, what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were afraid to confront, what the Civil War could not unravel, what Reconstruction tried to mediate, and Jim Crow did its best to retrench. This mighty wind made a fundamental shift in the moral character of our nation that has reached every sector of our society. And this history lends us one very powerful reminder today: Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change2 likesLike“The power of faith is transformative. It can be utilized in your own personal life to change your individual condition, and it can be used as a lifeline of spiritual strength to change a nation.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change1 likesLike“We believe some people are more special, more beautiful, more capable, more influential, more intelligent, more gifted, and have a greater capacity for good than others, often based on material possessions and outer appearances. At the root, that is why we are engaged in a struggle now in the Congress led by one group of people who truly believes their role is to defend the privileges of the elite. They defend tax breaks for the rich and ask for trillions in cuts to the safety nets that protect the middle class, the elderly, the sick, and the poor, because, in essence, they believe one group is more important than the other, more deserving than the other, and one contributes more good than the other. This is actually an illusion that is blind to the interdependence of the entire creation, which unites the weak with the strong, the privileged with the poor, and the ugly with the beautiful. All the inequities of our world are basically attempts to actualize this erroneous belief. And that is why there is turmoil, because we are in conflict with the truth, working to manifest an idea that is false.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: elites, equality, goodness, inequities, interdependence, privilege, truth1 likesLike“It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: change, civil-rights, history, leadership, social-change1 likesLike“There was a time when politicians needed to be great orators because the people themselves were grappling with the challenges of conscience, trying to perceive what is “right” and what is “wrong.” But today, not only do we miss the eloquence of public speaking, but the moral compass of so many leaders seems to be skewed.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change1 likesLike“To reconcile ourselves with one another, we must release our judgments and make peace with the fact that we are one. This country was founded on the ideal that we are all created equal. If we truly believe in the equality of all humankind, how can we put down and belittle one another? How can we disrespect and prejudge one another? How can we come to the point where we malign and hate one another?”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: disrespect, equality, hate, judging, reconciliation1 likesLike“Governments and corporations do not live. They have no power, no capacity in and of themselves. They are given life and derive all their authority from their ability to assist, benefit, and transform the lives of the people they touch. All authority emanates from the consent of the governed and the satisfaction of the customer.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“The truth is a powerful force. It is the foundation of all things. The truth is so all-consuming that it cannot be denied. You cannot erase the truth. You cannot tarnish the truth. You cannot whitewash the truth. It is bigger than the sum of us all, and whole, even in its parts.
And yet, though the truth can’t be denied or erased, it can be systematically obscured, strategically misinterpreted, and hidden from mainstream comprehension.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of Americatags: falsehoods, lies, truth0 likesLike“We in the movement decided to actualize our belief that the hatred we experienced was not based on any truth, but was actually an illusion in the minds of those who hated us.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“I meet so many ambitious young politicians and leaders who want to jump to the head of the line. They do not know how we arrived at this point in our history as a nation, but they believe they should be appointed to lead us into the future. They think that because they are educated, articulate, and talented someone should usher them down the red carpet to a throne of leadership. But real leaders are not appointed. They emerge out of the masses of the people and rise to the forefront through the circumstances of their lives. Either their inner journey or their human experience prepares them to take that role. They do not nominate themselves. They are called into service by a spirit moving through a people that points to them as the embodiment of the cause they serve.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“Lynching and vigilantism were considered duties, the necessary protection of men who were guarding the sanctity of social boundaries and the “purity” of their lineage. No matter the rationale, these ideas put a virtuous face on centuries of brutal history that actually robbed our aggressors of their moral grounding and made them creative participants in violence.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“He graduated from Morehouse at nineteen, and by the time he was twenty-three years old he held a doctorate in divinity from Boston College and a degree in divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary. He never forgot his purpose or his people in his work, and he used the mandates of graduate research to begin developing his own brand of social gospel. In his quest, he made it a point to study the work of all the major theologians and philosophers who might have had any bearing on his thesis. He also branched out beyond his comfort zone, as any credible scholar would, to study influential ideas of the time that were antithetical to his beliefs, like the work of Marx, Lenin, and Nietzsche. He examined every possible angle to find the theological answers to the questions he was asking, and he emerged in his study as a notable student and a compelling scholar.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“there is a power that can raise you up even from the lowliest of places and guide you to the forefront of change if you truly want to create a better world.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“Despite everything that has happened, regardless of the pain of their loss, despite all the other nonviolent peaceful warriors who suffered and sometimes fell, I have never once considered giving up or giving out. I could not let myself get lost in a sea of despair, because I had faith that the truth is bigger than all humanity. The tragedy of their loss was a crisis of faith, but in that struggle I discovered that you can kill a Medgar Evers or a Jimmie Lee Jackson. You can kill three civil rights workers named Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. You can bomb four innocent little girls in church on a Sunday morning. You can even kill three of the finest leaders of the twentieth century, but you cannot kill the truth they represented. The truth marches on; it is not connected to the life of any one individual. When a person dies, the dream does not die. You can kill a man, but the truth that he stood for will never die.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.” —BUDDHA”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change0 likesLike“What is the purpose of a nation if not to empower human beings to live better together than they could individually? When government fails to meet the basic needs of humanity for food, shelter, clothing, and even more important—the room to grow and evolve—the people will begin to rely on one another, to pool their resources and rise above the artificial limitations of tradition or law. Each of us has something significant to contribute to society be it physical, material, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change
