Shirley Chisholm Quotes - Page 2

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• My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Political, Mouths, Kind

  61 Copy quote

• There is a good deal of evidence that the United States is moving to the right, and that the main force behind the movement is a resurgence, in a new form, of racial prejudice.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Moving, Racism, United States

  67 Copy quote

• Be as bold as the first man or [woman] to eat an oyster.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Men, Oysters, Firsts

  36 Copy quote

• That's what's wrong with the country. There are too many 'good soldiers' accepting too many bad decisions.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Country, Decision, Soldier

  27 Copy quote

• That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black, and a woman proves, I would think, that our society is not yet either just or free.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Thinking, Years, Black

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.19, Take Root Media

  35 Copy quote

• I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.

  Shirley Chisholm

  America, Achievement

  Shirley Chisholm (1970). “Unbought and Unbossed”

  14 Copy quote

• Racism keeps people who are being managed from finding out the truth through contact with each other.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Truth, Racism, People

  Shirley Chisholm (1970). “Unbought and Unbossed”

  50 Copy quote

• We have never seen health as a right. It has been conceived as a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. This is the real reason the American health care system is in such a scandalous state.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Real, Care, Privilege

  99 Copy quote

• The liberals in the House strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Rights, Two, House

  Shirley Chisholm (1970). “Unbought and Unbossed”

  27 Copy quote

• We have been so patient and loyal ... and what has it gotten us? We want our full share now.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Loyal, Want, Patient

  10 Copy quote

• As things are now, no one can tell to whom members of Congress are responsible, except that it does not often appear to be to the people. Everyone else is represented in Washington by a rich and powerful lobby, it seems. But there is no lobby for the people.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Powerful, People, Doe

  Shirley Chisholm (1970). “Unbought and Unbossed”

  51 Copy quote

• Our representative democracy is not working because the Congress that is supposed to represent the voters does not respond to their needs. I believe the chief reason for this is that it is ruled by a small group of old men.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Believe, Men, Democracy

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.119, Take Root Media

  17 Copy quote

• Any time things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Overlooked

  13 Copy quote

• There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Independent, Personality, Creative

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.80, Take Root Media

  22 Copy quote

• The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, 'It's a girl.'

  Shirley Chisholm

  Girl, Equality, Emotional

  "Anthology : Quotations and Sayings of People of Color" by Walter B. Hoard, (p. 36), 1973.

  123 Copy quote

• I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I am not the candidate of black America, although I am black and proud. I'm not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I'm equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests... I am the candidate of the people...

  Shirley Chisholm

  Country, America, People

  "African-American and Female in One Candidate". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. January 24, 2008.

  63 Copy quote

• As a black person I am no stranger to prejudice. But the truth is that in the political world I have been far more often discriminated against because I am a woman than because I am black.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Political, Black, Prejudice

  19 Copy quote

• Congress seems drugged and inert most of the time... its idea of meeting a problem is to hold hearings or, in extreme cases, to appoint a commission.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Ideas, Hearing, Problem

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.120, Take Root Media

  47 Copy quote

• When the Kerner Commission told white America what black America has always known, that prejudice and hatred built the nation’s slums, maintains them and profits by them, white America could not believe it. But it is true. Unless we start to fight and defeat the enemies in our own country, poverty and racism, and make our talk of equality and opportunity ring true, we are exposed in the eyes of the world as hypocrites when we talk about making people free - (Chapter 9).

  Shirley Chisholm

  Country, Believe, Hypocrite

  55 Copy quote

• ... all Americans are the prisoners of racial prejudice.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Racism, Prejudice, Prisoner

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.151, Take Root Media

  25 Copy quote

• Some members of Congress are among the best actors in the world.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Actors, World, Congress

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.119, Take Root Media

  20 Copy quote

• Political organizations are formed to keep the powerful in power.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Powerful, Organization, Political

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.53, Take Root Media

  16 Copy quote

• As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Mother, Father, Black

  Shirley Chisholm's remarks for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), August 10, 1970.

  17 Copy quote

• The difference between de jure and de facto segregation is the difference between open, forthright bigotry and the shamefaced kind that works through unwritten agreements between real estate dealers, school officials, and local politicians.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Real, School, Agreement

  Shirley Chisholm (2010). “Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition”, p.172, Take Root Media

  21 Copy quote

• We Americans have a chance to become someday a nation in which all racial stocks and classes can exist in their own selfhoods, but meet on a basis of respect and equality and live together, socially, economically, and politically.

  Shirley Chisholm

  Class, Justice, Together

  9 Copy quote

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