Barbara Jordan Quotes
120 Barbara Jordan Quotes
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I don’t have an accent. I just talk like me. I have talked this way as long as I can remember.
Barbara Jordan
[On going to school] I would come home with five A’s and a B, and my father would say, ‘Why do you have a B?’
Barbara Jordan
I always wanted to be something unusual, I would never be content with being run of the mill. I was thinking about being a pharmacist, but then I asked myself, ‘Whoever heard of an outstanding pharmacist?’
Barbara Jordan
[To her portrait painter] My mother says not to make me pretty.
Barbara Jordan
I still get goose bumps when I hear the Star Spangled Banner.
Barbara Jordan
[On what she had to do in practical political terms to get elected] It was clear then that if I was to win… I had to persuade the monied and politically influential interests either to support me or to remain neutral.
Barbara Jordan
I considered abandoning the dream of a public career in Texas and moving to some section of the country where a black woman candidate was less likely to be considered a novelty. I didn’t want to do this. I am a Texan; my roots are in Texas. To leave would be a cop-out. So I stayed.
Barbara Jordan
‘Texan’ frequently evokes images of conservatism, oil, gas, racism, callousness. In my judgment, the myths should be debunked, or at least, should include the prevalent strains of reasonableness, compassion, and decency.
Barbara Jordan
I am a Texan; my roots are in Texas. To leave would be a cop-out.
Barbara Jordan
The Texas Senate was touted as the state’s most exclusive club. To be effective I had to get inside the club, not just inside the chamber. I singled out the most influential and powerful members and determined to gain their respect.
Barbara Jordan
[In response to Senator Chet Brooks saying ‘Senator, the only thing missing in this portrait is your voice; without your voice, it just isn’t you.’] Senator, these3 walls have been needing a touch of color, and when my painting hangs amid the august people on the walls of this camber, believe me, it’s gonna talk.
Barbara Jordan
[When 30 men rose and gave her two standing ovations] I have not been treated with any more respect by any group of men anywhere.
Barbara Jordan
[In 1972 when she left the chamber] Nothing that can happen in my lifetime will equal the memories I have of my years of service in this chamber.
Barbara Jordan
[On LBJ – Lyndon B Johnson passing away] He was my political mentor and my friend. I loved him and I shall miss him.
Barbara Jordan
It just wasn’t in the game plan.
Barbara Jordan
That plank probably resulted in further killing and dying, but I felt it was important for Texans to be supportive of their man.
Barbara Jordan
Maybe I have a natural affinity for Southerners because I am a Southerner.
Barbara Jordan
I’m not a professional black or professional woman, but a professional legislator.
Barbara Jordan
[To the Democratic Convention] There is something special about tonight. What is different? What is special? I, Barbara Jordan, am a keynote speaker.
Barbara Jordan
As you listen to these words of Abraham Lincoln, relate them to the concept of a national community in which every last one of us participates: ‘As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of a democracy.’
Barbara Jordan
You have got to be able to love yourself – love yourself strongly, and not let anybody disabuse you of your self-respect.
Barbara Jordan
It’s a remarkable opportunity to have an impact on the generation that will succeed me.
Barbara Jordan
If you are so focused on self, you cannot have any awareness of the common good.
Barbara Jordan
We live in this world in order to contribute to the growth, the development, the spirit and the life of the community of humankind.
Barbara Jordan
Each generation leaves a legacy to succeeding generations… That legacy may be solid, etched as if in stone, or it may be as fragile as a house of cards, tumbling in the first gust of wind.
Barbara Jordan
The conditions under which we live are rapidly changing, and the very process of change makes it all the more difficult to find answers.
Barbara Jordan
I was doing sixteen years of remedial work in thinking.
Barbara Jordan
Ethical behavior means being honest, telling the truth, and doing what you said you would do.
Barbara Jordan
[In 1974] You, the graduate, will emerge from academia with the expectation, and with the hope, that you will be free to pursue your life as you define it, and you are going to hope that no one will interfere with your definition of your life. You have a basis for that presumption because there is something in the history of the United States which says that freedom, that liberty, is a part of what we are about. That history started in 1776…
Barbara Jordan
[In 1974] The events of the past few years and even the past few days have convinced us that it is possible for this country to stand on the edge of repression and tyranny and never know it.
Barbara Jordan
[In her early days] I decided that if I was going to be outstanding or different, it was going to have to be in relation to other black people rather than in some setting where white people were.
Barbara Jordan
I was at Boston University in this new and strange and different world, and it occurred to me that if I was going to succeed at this strange new adventure, I would have to read longer and more thoroughly than my colleagues at law school had to read. I felt I had to compensate for what I had missed in earlier years, I would have to work harder, and study longer, than anybody else.
Barbara Jordan
[In 1962 on winning the vast majority of black votes, but failing to attract the white vote made a win impossible] That was very puzzling to me, and disturbing. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what did happen in that race.
Barbara Jordan
[In 1966 in response to the dangers of focusing on the ‘Black block vote’] Look, don’t tell us about black block votes. … Our time has come!
Barbara Jordan
[On complaints that she wasn’t doing enough after soon after being elected in 1966] You don’t get in there having a drink quickly. You work and you learn the rules and you keep your mouth shut until it is time to open it.
Barbara Jordan
[On comments that in 1976 Jimmy Carter should be naming her to the vice presidential spot] It’s not my turn. When it’s my turn, you’ll know.
Barbara Jordan
If this is the best you have to offer, I haven’t missed anything.
Barbara Jordan
If the impeachment provision in the Constitution of the United States will not reach the offenses charged here, then perhaps that eighteenth-century Constitution should be abandoned to a twentieth-century paper shredder.
Barbara Jordan
There are certain legitimate expectations the people have of their government. There are duties the government must perform on behalf of its people. The reciprocal duties and obligations of the government and its people render the slogan ‘Get the government off our backs’ empty and meaningless. We expect the government to maintain order, security and civility. We expect the government to establish justice and to promote the general welfare. In actualizing those expectations we anticipate that all citizens will be treated fairly. If from time to time circumstances and conditions require suffering, we expect equity in suffering.
Barbara Jordan
A president who faithfully executes the office has a sense of history and a vision for the future. He envisions a society in which all men and women stand on level ground and certain starting places are not favored over others. He sees a society in which all people are free to soar to the upper reaches of their capacities. He sees unfettered opportunities. He trusts government. He does not fear government.
Barbara Jordan
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