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" I would say the country is a different country. It is a better country. The signs I saw when I was growing up are gone and they will not return. In many ways the walls of segregation have been torn down. "

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" When I was a student, I studied philosophy and religion. I talked about being patient. Some people say I was too hopeful, too optimistic, but you have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence. "

John Lewis

People

Religion

Say

" The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something. "

" Be hopeful. Be optimistic. Never lose that sense of hope. "

" The scars and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in the American society. "

" A few days after Bloody Sunday, there was demonstration in more than 80 American cities. People were demanding that the government act. "

" Selma helped make it possible for hundreds and thousands of people in the South to become registered voters and encouraged people all across America to become participants in a democratic process. "

" Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it. "

John Lewis

Go For It

Happy

" Without our faith, we wouldn't have been able to succeed. On many occasions, before we'd go out on a sit-in, before we went on the freedom ride, before we marched from Selma to Montgomery, we would sing a song or say a prayer. Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful. "

" We need comprehensive immigration reform. Dr. King wouldn't be pleased at all to know that there are millions of people living in the shadow, living in fear in places like Georgia and Alabama. "

" You have to tell the whole truth, the good and the bad, maybe some things that are uncomfortable for some people. "

" I say to people today, 'You must be prepared if you believe in something. If you believe in something, you have to go for it. As individuals, we may not live to see the end.' "

" We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jails over and over again. And then you holler, 'Be patient.' How long can we be patient? "

" We are one people with one family. We all live in the same house... and through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear. "

" Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I'm on today. "

" The action of Rosa Parks, the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me. I was deeply inspired. I wanted to do something. "

John Lewis

Words

Action

" Sometimes I feel like crying, tears of happiness, tears of joy, to see the distance we've come and the progress we've made. "

" If it hadn't been for that march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday, there would be no Barack Obama as President of the United States of America. "

" Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back. "

John Lewis

Path

Never

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

" I wanted young people to know that I was just a typical child. "

" I grew up very poor in rural Alabama. "

" We all live in the same house, we all must be part of the effort to hold down our little house. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just... do something about it. Say something. Have the courage. Have the backbone. Get in the way. Walk with the wind. It's all going to work out. "

" Sometimes you have to not just dream about what could be - you get out and push and you pull and you preach. And you create a climate and environment to get those in high places, to get men and women of good will in power to act. "

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

" I'm very hopeful. I am very optimistic about the future. "

" Obama is not an African American president, but a president of all Americans. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, he's the president of all races. "

" When I was growing up in rural Alabama, it was impossible for me to register to vote. I didn't become a registered voter until I moved to Tennessee, to Nashville, as a student. "

John Lewis

Vote

Become

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

" Comics, in a sense, the style, the images - it's almost like music. They say music is a universal language, but when the eyes behold something, a figure, somebody moving; it's real, and it cannot be denied. "

" 1963, because of the sense of moral authority that the civil rights movement had, we were able to get people to respond, because of the quality of our demand and our sense of moral authority. "