70 Best Marian Wright Edelman Quotes From The American Children's Rights Activist

Marian Wright Edelman is the founder and President of Child Defense Fund.

She is a children rights activist and has also been advocating for disadvantaged Americans almost her entire life. She has influenced some highly noted personalities such as Hilary Clinton and Martin Luther King Jr.

Here are some Marian Wright Edelman quotes that will change the way you look at America and urge you to bring some changes. Her set of quotations like, quotations on child abuse, black education quotes, and quotations on domestic violence are powerful and amazing.

For more quotes, visit [Bell Hooks quotes] and Marcus Garvey quotes too.

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Marian Wright Edelman Quotes Education

These Marian Wright Edelman quotes about poverty and education describe the situation of education perfectly.

1."Education is a precondition to survival in America today."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

2."Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

3."It is sustained by the belief that freedom and education go hand in hand, that learning and training are essential to economic quality and independence."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

4."Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

5."I think it's outrageous how hard it is to get this country to feed its children and to take care of its children, to give them a decent education."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

6."Unless children have strong education and strong families and strong communities and decent housing, it's not enough to go sit in at a lunch counter."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

7."No time is ever wasted if you have a book along as a companion."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

8."Children cannot eat rhetoric and they cannot be sheltered by commissions."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

9."You can't tell parents to teach children the value of work when we don't have jobs and the jobs we have don't pay a decent wage."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

10." You can't tell children to achieve and then let them go to broken-down schools with teachers who don't care."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

Marian Wright Edelman Quotes On Children

These child welfare quotes make you realize not to take children of the nation lightly.

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

- Marian Wright Edelman.

12."I believe that adult hypocrisy is the biggest problem children face in America."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

13."There's ignorance in people who just don't know that we have a national child emergency."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

14."Every child’s life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

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

― Marian Wright Edelman.

16.“When Jesus Christ asked little children to come to him, he didn't say only rich children, or White children, or children with two-parent families, or children who didn't have a mental or physical handicap. He said, Let all children come unto me.”

-Marian Wright Edelman.

17."Homeless shelters, child hunger, and child suffering have become normalized in the richest nation on earth."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

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

― Marian Wright Edelman.

19."I worry about the kids who have too much."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

20."God did not create two classes of children or human beings-only one."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

21."The old notion that children are the private property of parents dies very slowly. In reality, no parent raises a child alone."

― Marian Wright Edelman.

22."Children teach us to be courageous and to stand up against injustice."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

23."Children must have at least one person who believes in them."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

24.“So much of America's tragic and costly failure to care for all its children stems from our tendency to distinguish between our own children and other people's children”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

25."It is a spiritually impoverished nation that permits infants and children to be the poorest Americans."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

26.“The future which we hold in trust for our own children will be shaped by our fairness to other people's children.”

- Marian Wright Edelman.

27."Family and moral values are so central to everything that I am."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

28."The key is that your children are aware that you love them a lot, and that you are there when they really, really need you."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

29."If a kid was ill, I would simply leave a meeting and go home."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

30."I believe we must look inward to God for guidance and strength and backward to draw on the values and legacies of our families, ancestors, and communities."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

31."Investing in [children] is not a national luxury or a national choice. It's a national necessity."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

32."It is the responsibility of every adult... to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and that they are not alone."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

33."Amidst protestations of 'Who can be against the children?' too few people are FOR children when it really matters."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

34."To all those mothers and fathers who are struggling with teen-agers, I say, just be patient"

-Marian Wright Edelman.

35."We are willing to spend the least amount of money to keep a kid at home, more to put him in a foster home and the most to institutionalize him."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

36."I think it is important that people who are perceived as liberals not be afraid of talking about moral and community values."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

Marian Wright Edelman Quotes About Being Considerate

These Marian Wright Edelman service quotes will remind you of the importance of being considerate.

37.“Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

38.“Service is the rent we pay for being.”

-Marian Wright Edelman.

39."I hope that people of all faiths will start looking for our too-invisible children who are crying out for help."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

40.“Don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

41."Children don't vote but adults who do must stand up and vote for them."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

42.“You really can change the world if you care enough.”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

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

― Marian Wright Edelman.

44."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."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

45."I try to be a person of faith."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

46.

"I was taught that the world had a lot of problems; that I could struggle and change them; that intellectual and material gifts brought the privilege and responsibility of sharing with others less fortunate; and that service is the rent each of us pays for living - the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time or after you have reached your personal goals."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

47."I don't care what my children choose to do professionally, just as long as within their choices they understand they've got to give something back."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

48."Be grateful for good breaks and kind favors but don't count on them."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

Marian Wright Edelman Quotes On Bringing A Change

The Marian Wright Edelman quotes will encourage you to bring a change for the better.

49."Don't just dream about grandiose acts of doing good. Every day do small ones, that add up over time to positive patterns."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

50."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.

51.“A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it.”

- Marian Wright Edelman.

52."It is time for every one of us to roll up our sleeves and put ourselves at the top of our commitment list."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

53."Semi-automatic weapons have no socially redeeming purpose."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

54."It is up to us. It is up to you."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

55.“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

56.“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.”

― Marian Wright Edelman.

57.“I feel very lucky to have grown up having interaction with adults who were making change but who were far from perfect beings.”

- Marian Wright Edelman.

58.“The legacy I want to leave is a child-care system that says that no kid is going to be left alone or left unsafe.”

- Marian Wright Edelman.

59."People want to pick the leader, and we are obsessed with celebrity and whoever is on the cover of this or that."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

60."Far less wealthy industrialized countries have committed to end child poverty, while the United States is sliding backwards."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

61."It's time to reset our moral compass and redefine how we measure success."

- Marian Wright Edelman.

62."Ordinary women of grace are, in a sense, my real role models."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

63."There are levels of outrage, and there's a point at which you can't be trespassed upon anymore."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

64."Understand and be confident that each of us can make a difference by caring and acting in small as well as big ways."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

65."You were born God's original. Try not to become someone's copy."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

66."I also grew up with community co-parents who looked out for each other. They looked out for children and tried to be the hands of God."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

67."If parents snicker at racial and gender jokes, another generation will pass on the poison adults still have not had the courage to snuff out."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

68."Justice is not cheap. Justice is not quick."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

69."We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem."

-Marian Wright Edelman.

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

-Marian Wright Edelman.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotesfor everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Marian Wright Edelman quotes then why not take a look at Margaret Fuller quotes, or Madam CJ Walker quotes.