55+ Barbara Jordan Quotes (Inspiring, Courageous And Determined)

Barbara Jordan was an American politician who served as a U.S. Congresswoman for the state of Texas from 1973 to 1979. She was the first African-American woman to be elected to the Texas Senate and the first African-American woman from the South to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Jordan was an influential civil rights leader and a powerful advocate for social justice and civil rights.

Top 10 Barbara Jordan Quotes

1. If the society today allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval of the majority.
2. We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves.
3. Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love.
4. Today, I am an inquisitor. I shall not sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
5. Education remains the key to both economic and political empowerment.
6. Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power.
7. What the people want is very simple - they want an America as good as its promise.
8. I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it.
9. Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.
10. The majority of the American people still believe that every single individual in this country is entitled to just as much respect, just as much dignity, as every other individual.

Barbara Jordan Image Quotes

One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits. — Barbara Jordan

Barbara Jordan Short Quotes

• One thing is very clear: Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits.
• If you are dissatisfied with they way things are, then you have got to resolve to change them.
• Justice of right is always to take precedence over might.
• We are a heterogeneous party made up of Americans of diverse backgrounds.
• The citizens of America expect more. They deserve and they want more than a recital of problems.
• ...for the system to be credible, people actually have to be deported at the end of the process.
• If you're going to play the game properly, you'd better know every rule.
• The earth is bread we take and eat.
• [It is] one of the most complex and emotional issues of out time.
• When do any of us ever do enough?

Barbara Jordan Famous Quotes And Sayings

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminuation, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. It is reason and not passion which must guide our deliberations, guide our debate, and guide our decision. — Barbara Jordan

Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave. — Barbara Jordan

How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance -- the one value that is indispensable in creating community. — Barbara Jordan

For our immigration policy to make sense, it is necessary to make distinctions between those who obey the law, and those who violate it. — Barbara Jordan

"We, the people." It is a very elegant beginning. But when that document was completed on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that "We, the people." — Barbara Jordan

I get from the soil and spirit of Texas the feeling that I, as an individual, can accomplish whatever I want to, and that there are no limits, that you can just keep going, just keep soaring. I like that spirit. — Barbara Jordan

It is both a right and a responsibility of a democratic society to manage immigration so that it serves the national interest. — Barbara Jordan

I live a day at a time. Each day I look for a kernel of excitement. In the morning, I say: 'What is my exciting thing for today?' Then, I do the day. Don't ask me about tomorrow. — Barbara Jordan

We want to be in control of our lives. Whether we are jungle fighters, craftsmen, company men, gamesmen, we want to be in control. And when the government erodes that control, we are not comfortable. — Barbara Jordan

We must have an economy that does not force the migrant worker's child to miss school in order to earn...just so the family can eat. That is the moral bankruptcy that trickle-down economics is all about. — Barbara Jordan

All my growth and development led me to believe that if you really do the right thing, and if you play by the rules, and if you?ve got good enough, solid judgment and common sense, that you?re going to be able to do whatever you want to do with your life. — Barbara Jordan

What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance. — Barbara Jordan

We believe that the people are the source of all governmental power; that the authority of the people is to be extended, not restricted. — Barbara Jordan

Fairness is an across-the-board requirement for all our interactions with each other ...Fairness treats everbody the same. — Barbara Jordan

Americanization means the process of becoming an American. It means civic incorporation, becoming a part of the polity - becoming one of us. But that does not mean conformity. We are more than a melting pot, we are a kaleidoscope, where every turn of history refracts new light on the old promise. — Barbara Jordan

In other times, I could stand here and give this kind of exposition on the beliefs of the Democratic Party and that would be enough. But today that is not enough. People want more. — Barbara Jordan

If you had to work in the environment of Washington, D.C., as I do, and watch those men who are so imprisoned and so confined by their eighteenth-century thought patterns, you would know that if anybody is going to be liberated, it's men who must be liberated in this country. — Barbara Jordan

I do not bring any professional knowledge of the issue to bear, but what I do bring to my consideration of immigration is a deepened and highly sensitized feeling with those persons who feel alien in our country. I can feel the strangeness they feel because it is something I have experienced in a different area. — Barbara Jordan

The Commission agrees that the federal government should help alleviate these costs. The best way to do so is to reduce illegal immigration.... We recommend immediate reimbursement of criminal justice costs, because these conditions can now be met, but we urge further study of the costs of health care and education before impact aid is provided. — Barbara Jordan

I have faith in young people because I know the strongest emotions which prevail are those of love and caring and belief and tolerance. — Barbara Jordan

I never wanted to be run of the mill. — Barbara Jordan

Even as I stand here and admit that we have made mistakes I still believe that as the people of America sit in judgment on each party, they will recognize that our mistakes were mistakes of the heart. They'll recognize that. — Barbara Jordan

The stakes ... are too high for government to be a spectator sport. — Barbara Jordan

The Supreme Court has always been the last bastion of the protection of our freedoms. — Barbara Jordan

I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in "We, the people." — Barbara Jordan

Life is too large to hang out a sign: 'For Men Only. — Barbara Jordan

The Commission endorses prevention as the principal strategy to use in deterring illegal entries. We applaud the efforts of innovative Border Patrol leaders such as Silvestre Reyes with Operation Hold the Line in El Paso. Operation Hold the Line demonstrated that a strategic use of personnel and technology can combine at our land border, as it has for many years at our airports, to reduce unauthorized crossings. — Barbara Jordan

We can certainly defuse the intensity of the anti-immigrant feeling if we can bring some reality to the discussion by showing that they are not using that many resources. — Barbara Jordan

...we must face the fact that unilateral action on the part of the United States will never be enough to stop illegal immigration. Immigrants come here illegally from source countries where conditions prevail that encourage or even compel them to leave. Attacking the causes of illegal migration is essential and will require international cooperation. — Barbara Jordan

The arts are not a frill. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature, and help to shape our identity. What is there that can transcend deep difference and stubborn divisions? The arts. They have a wonderful universality. Art has the potential to unify. It can speak in many languages without a translator. The arts do not discriminate. The arts lift us up. — Barbara Jordan

A spirit of harmony can only survive if each of us remembers, when bitterness and self-interest seem to prevail, that we share a common destiny. — Barbara Jordan

Things which matter cost money, and we've got to spend the money if we do not want to have generations of parasites rather than generations of productive citizens. — Barbara Jordan

The arts, instead of quaking along the periphery of our policy concerns, must push boldly into the core of policy. The arts are a response to our individuality and our nature and help to shape our identity. The arts are not a frill and should not be treated as such. They have the potential to become the driving force for healing division and divisiveness. — Barbara Jordan

I never intended to become a run-of-the-mill person. — Barbara Jordan

It is a privilege to serve people, a privilege that must be earned, and once earned, there is an obligation to do something good with it. — Barbara Jordan

Life Lessons by Barbara Jordan

1. Barbara Jordan taught us that hard work and dedication can lead to great success, no matter where you come from.
2. She also showed us that it's possible to make a difference in the world, even when facing obstacles and opposition.
3. Lastly, she demonstrated the importance of standing up for what you believe in and fighting for justice and equality.