Across That Bridge Quotes

“I meet so many ambitious young politicians and leaders who want to jump to the head of the line. They do not know how we arrived at this point in our history as a nation, but they believe they should be appointed to lead us into the future. They think that because they are educated, articulate, and talented someone should usher them down the red carpet to a throne of leadership. But real leaders are not appointed. They emerge out of the masses of the people and rise to the forefront through the circumstances of their lives. Either their inner journey or their human experience prepares them to take that role. They do not nominate themselves. They are called into service by a spirit moving through a people that points to them as the embodiment of the cause they serve.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“there is a power that can raise you up even from the lowliest of places and guide you to the forefront of change if you truly want to create a better world.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“We called it “making a way out of no way.” So when we were standing in protest facing police dogs and fire hoses, we knew without any doubt that somebody who was greater than us all would make a way out of no way and protect the defenders of the truth.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“We in the movement decided to actualize our belief that the hatred we experienced was not based on any truth, but was actually an illusion in the minds of those who hated us.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“to truly revolutionize our society, we must first revolutionize ourselves. We must be the change we seek if we are to effectively demand transformation from others.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“Whenever the people finally reject the efforts to fragment their collective energies into warring factions and remember their divine union with one another, when they throw off material distractions and irrelevant negativity and hear their souls speak with one voice, they will rise up. And whatever is in their path will either transform or transpire.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“To reconcile ourselves with one another, we must release our judgments and make peace with the fact that we are one. This country was founded on the ideal that we are all created equal. If we truly believe in the equality of all humankind, how can we put down and belittle one another? How can we disrespect and prejudge one another? How can we come to the point where we malign and hate one another?”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.” —NELSON MANDELA”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“But we must accept one central truth as participants in a democracy: Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. The work of love, peace, and justice will always be necessary, until their realism and their imperative takes hold of our imagination, crowds out any dream of hatred or revenge, and fills up our existence with their power.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change

“We believe some people are more special, more beautiful, more capable, more influential, more intelligent, more gifted, and have a greater capacity for good than others, often based on material possessions and outer appearances. At the root, that is why we are engaged in a struggle now in the Congress led by one group of people who truly believes their role is to defend the privileges of the elite. They defend tax breaks for the rich and ask for trillions in cuts to the safety nets that protect the middle class, the elderly, the sick, and the poor, because, in essence, they believe one group is more important than the other, more deserving than the other, and one contributes more good than the other. This is actually an illusion that is blind to the interdependence of the entire creation, which unites the weak with the strong, the privileged with the poor, and the ugly with the beautiful. All the inequities of our world are basically attempts to actualize this erroneous belief. And that is why there is turmoil, because we are in conflict with the truth, working to manifest an idea that is false.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“For me, the nomination of Barack Obama as a candidate for president and his inauguration in Washington represents a brief glimpse at the power and potential of peace.

There was a radiance about America then, a great coming together of so many people, races, generations, and beliefs. For one brief moment in our history, we found a way to put down our strife against one another. For a few days, weeks, and months all the false reasons we use daily to look down on others, to separate ourselves from one another, fell away, and we opened our hearts to the kind of equality that our founders envisioned but did not have the courage to create. In that moment we decided to face the truth of our oneness with one another, and when we did we experienced the beauty of peace.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“War that is waged for power or dominion over other human beings obscures the inevitable truth that we are all members of one family, and no matter who has conquered whom, who now resents whom, who holds bitterness against whom, the only way we can have true peace is to set aside our injuries and our dedication to revenge and accept our equal divinity.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“In the South, we knew our adversary would stop at nothing to silence our activism. We knew we could never match his readiness to annihilate our resistance. So we ceded him that ground and challenged him instead to defend himself against the work of loving peace.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“These men grew. They changed because of what they experienced, and that is all you can ask of another person.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“The truth is a powerful force. It is the foundation of all things. The truth is so all-consuming that it cannot be denied. You cannot erase the truth. You cannot tarnish the truth. You cannot whitewash the truth. It is bigger than the sum of us all, and whole, even in its parts.

And yet, though the truth can't be denied or erased, it can be systematically obscured, strategically misinterpreted, and hidden from mainstream comprehension.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“I meet so many ambitious young politicians and leaders who want to jump to the head of the line. They do not know how we arrived at this point in our history as a nation, but they believe they should be appointed to lead us into the future. They think that because they are educated, articulate, and talented someone should usher them down the red carpet to a throne of leadership. But real leaders are not appointed. They emerge out of the masses of the people and rise to the forefront through the circumstances of their lives. Either their inner journey or their human experience prepares them to take that role. They do not nominate themselves. They are called into service by a spirit moving through a people that points to them as the embodiment of the cause they serve.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

“Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet.”
― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change