John Lewis

You have to be persistent.

— John Lewis

The vote controls everything that you do.

— John Lewis

Selma was the turning point.

— John Lewis

The reward for playing jazz is playing jazz.

— John Lewis

We must be headlights and not taillights.

— John Lewis

Sensible people have got to work together.

— John Lewis

I grew up very poor in rural Alabama.

— John Lewis

I was honored to have an opportunity to speak on August 28th, 1963.

— John Lewis

There is a need for a movement of non-violent direct action.

— John Lewis

The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.

— John Lewis

I think that [James] Comey acted in an outrageous way during the [presidential ] campaign [in 2016].

— John Lewis

Too many of us still believe our differences define us.

— John Lewis

The lessons of nonviolence are universal. Not just for America.

— John Lewis

Never give up. Never give in. Never become hostile... Hate is too big a burden to bear.

— John Lewis

There's nothing wrong with a little agitation for what's right or what's fair.

— John Lewis

I think [James Comey] should take a hard look at what he has done. And I think it would not be a…

— John Lewis

If it hadn't been for that march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, there would be no Barack Obama as…

— John Lewis

I say from time to time that the vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or…

— John Lewis

I'm gonna say that I have followed every presidential campaign since the campaign of President [John F.] Kennedy in 1960.

— John Lewis

Some people know Rosa Parks, they know Daisy Bates in Arkansas, but every... Ruby Doris Smith, Diane Nash, countless individuals.

— John Lewis

The book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, I read it when I was about 17-and-a-half or 18. It changed my life.

— John Lewis

Customs, traditions, laws should be flexible, within good reason, if that is what it takes to make our democracy work.

— John Lewis

I believe that teachers - whether in elementary schools, at the secondary level, or at colleges and universities - every teacher deserves…

— John Lewis

In Selma, Alabama, in 1965, only 2.1 percent of blacks of voting age were registered to vote. The only place you could…

— John Lewis

I remember back in the 1960s - late '50s, really - reading a comic book called 'Martin Luther King Jr. and the…

— John Lewis

People should organize people to just turn up and participate in the democratic process. Knock on doors. They may not be old…

— John Lewis

“To reconcile ourselves with one another, we must release our judgments and make peace with the fact that we are one. This…

— John Lewis

No one can say that this was the decisive and [Russians hacking ] was what elected [Donald] Trump, but clearly his behavior…

— John Lewis

Today, we have come a distance. We have made a lot of progress. That cannot be denied. You cannot dispute the fact…

— John Lewis

It is our hope that when people read "March" - Book One, Book Two, and Book Three - that they will understand…

— John Lewis

We have had a great relationship with the White House.We just had every cabinet person designee of ours meet with the cabinet…

— John Lewis

My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers. They had been tenant farmers like so many people in…

— John Lewis

When I speak to students about the Civil Rights Movement, I say that it is impossible to stop a determined movement that…

— John Lewis

I heard of Martin Luther King Jr. when I was 15 years old. I heard of Rosa Parks. And I met Dr.…

— John Lewis

When I was growing up in rural Alabama, as a young child, about 50 miles from Montgomery, and we would visit the…

— John Lewis

My parents told me in the very beginning as a young child when I raised the question about segregation and racial discrimination,…

— John Lewis

I am concerned that there are some feelings in some quarters in some corners that, what do people of color want now?…

— John Lewis

“We believe some people are more special, more beautiful, more capable, more influential, more intelligent, more gifted, and have a greater capacity…

— John Lewis

In 1965, the attempted march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7th was planned to dramatize to the state of Alabama and…

— John Lewis

I really believe that all of us, as Americans... we all need to be treated like fellow human beings.

— John Lewis