Joycelyn Elders

The best contraceptive in the world is a good education.

— Joycelyn Elders

Once I had a professor say to me, "You know you have as much education as a lot of white people." I…

— Joycelyn Elders

Handguns are a public health issue.

— Joycelyn Elders

[On masturbation:] I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught.

— Joycelyn Elders

I think we should have a very, very heavy tax on handguns and on bullets.

— Joycelyn Elders

“We have a multiheaded dragon in our midst that for too long has been waging a domestic war on our young, our…

— Joycelyn Elders

... black women have always found that in the social order of things we're the least likely to be believed--by anyone.

— Joycelyn Elders

You can't keep an ignorant population healthy.

— Joycelyn Elders

Everybody's got to die from somethin'.

— Joycelyn Elders

[We must] deal with all of the contributing factors to gun violence as a whole, because it's like a leaky bucket -…

— Joycelyn Elders

You can't educate people that are not healthy. But you certainly can't keep them healthy if they're not educated.

— Joycelyn Elders

As long as I was in Washington I never met anybody that I thought was good enough, who knew enough, or who…

— Joycelyn Elders

I came there as prime steak and now I feel like low-grade hamburger.

— Joycelyn Elders

Health is more than the absence of disease. Health is about jobs and employment, education, the environment, and all of those things…

— Joycelyn Elders

Health is more than absence of disease; it is about economics, education, environment, empowerment, and community. The health and well being of…

— Joycelyn Elders

You can't educate a child who isn't healthy, and you can't keep a child healthy who isn't educated.

— Joycelyn Elders

Nobody with a criminal record would ever be allowed to buy a gun. All assault weapons would be banned, completely. And everybody…

— Joycelyn Elders

Marijuana is beneficial to many patients

— Joycelyn Elders

My biggest challenge is to educate the American people, to make access to health care available for all, and to make sure…

— Joycelyn Elders

I want to make it as hard as possible. Gun owners would have to be evaluated by how they scored on written…

— Joycelyn Elders

I've heard Eric Clapner, ... I think it was a wonderful thing that Eric Clapner the musician did...So I think that's the…

— Joycelyn Elders

Guns are far too accessible and too readily available. There are over 200 million guns in our society - and that's just…

— Joycelyn Elders

As a Christian, as an individual, as a doctor, I am absolutely opposed to the death penalty.

— Joycelyn Elders

The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as…

— Joycelyn Elders

I don't know how anybody can say that who looks at what's happening to our young people and what's happening to our…

— Joycelyn Elders