Shirley Chisholm Quotes: Inspiring Words from a Trailblazing Leader

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.

In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing – anti-humanism.

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.

If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring your own folding chair.

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

I am, was, and always will be a catalyst for change.

I’d like them to say that Shirley Chisholm had guts.

I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I’m equally proud of that.

The fears which a woman must overcome are not obstacles of her own making.

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

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.

Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes that we hold of ourselves.

I am unbought and unbossed.

The gun lobby finds waiting periods inconvenient. You have only to ask my husband how inconvenient he finds his wheelchair from time to time.

I don’t believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.

If America keeps treating black people the way they do, black people will have no respect for themselves.

I am a catalyst for change.

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.

I am, was, will always be a catalyst for change.

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: ‘It’s a girl’.

The Constitution they wrote was designed to protect the rights of white, male citizens.

I am a revolution.

When I die, I want to be remembered as someone who never compromised their integrity.

The realities are that, you know, as a black woman in politics, in an area where pretty much the entire political establishment is majority white and male, the path is never an easy one.

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

America has been a reluctant liberator in most respects. But when it did act, as in the case of Shirley Chisholm, the nation was changed. And Exponential outsiderism was now part the beneficiary.

You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.

I am not a racist, and I do not subscribe to any of the tenets of racism. But I do not believe in positive discrimination, in any form.

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

I say to you, I have done the platform up to now. But that convention is going to be the most irrational, hysterical, paranoid convention since the Nazis ran for office.

I want to help make America the very best place possible for every other American and across the globe as well.

We do not want our vision of America to be colored by racial prejudice.

We need to recognize that when we go to the ballot box, that is actually the most powerful nonviolent instrument or tool that we actually have.

Women in this country must become revolutionaries. We must refuse to accept the old, the traditional roles and stereotypes.

If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

I ran for the Presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.

One day, congress will be a place where every race and color will be represented in our nation with understanding and not with hatred and ignorance.

Be true to yourself, and attend only to your own conscience.

I ran because I looked around and nobody else was running, and it was time for a change.

I’m not the candidate of, by and for any political group.

I am the catalyst for change.

I am and always will be a catalyst for change.

I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.

Realize that we cannot go forward if we only look backward.

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom profit that loses.

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.

I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States of America, born of the people, pledged to the people, and dedicated to the people.