Quotes by Marian Wright Edelman

About Marian Wright Edelman:

Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Children under five are the poorest age group in America, and one in four infants, toddlers and preschoolers are poor during the years of greatest brain development.

Marian Wright Edelman

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

Marian Wright Edelman

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

Marian Wright Edelman

I grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do.

Marian Wright Edelman

Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for.

Marian Wright Edelman

If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.

Marian Wright Edelman

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.

Marian Wright Edelman

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.

Marian Wright Edelman

The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place.

Marian Wright Edelman

You didn't have a choice about the parents you inherited, but you do have a choice about the kind of parent you will be.

Marian Wright Edelman

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.

Marian Wright Edelman

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.

Marian Wright Edelman

I hadn't planned on going to law school. I wanted to study 19th-century Russian literature.

Marian Wright Edelman

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

Marian Wright Edelman

Semi-automatic weapons have no socially redeeming purpose.

Marian Wright Edelman

We have the capacity to make sure that every mother has pre-natal care. Yet, we don't do it. What is it about America? It says we don't value children and families. We are hypocrites.

Marian Wright Edelman

When President Kennedy was elected, many black Americans, like so many Americans, were captivated by his youth and energy and promise and were especially hopeful that he might move the country in a new direction on civil rights.

Marian Wright Edelman

Whoever said anybody has a right to give up?

Marian Wright Edelman

I'm tough in the sense that I believe as strongly in what I'm doing as anybody else believes in what they are doing.

Marian Wright Edelman

It never occurred to me that I was not going to challenge segregation.

Marian Wright Edelman

Author Bio

  • NameMarian Wright Edelman
  • DescriptionAmerican activist and founder of the Children's Defense Fund
  • BornJune 6, 1939
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionAuthor
  • AwardsMacArthur Fellows Program; Lillian Smith Book Award; Gandhi Peace Award; National Women's Hall Of Fame