Cory Booker Quotes

Cynicism about America’s current state of affairs is ultimately a form of surrender.

The "power of the people" is greater than the "people in power" ... Change does not come from Washington, it comes to Washington.

Most people think that these high-density poor neighborhoods, predominately people of color, just came about through some accident of history, but they were the conscious creation [of institutional racism].

You encouraging me means more to me than you can imagine (After Jimmy Carter hoped Booker run for president).

The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe. To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime– I urge you to pay attention.

I’m not here to tell folk just what they should know, I’m here to call on folk to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders. You are either complicit in evil, you are either contributing to wrong, or you are fighting against it.

I don’t think most Americans realize that the way we raise animals is such a betrayal of the heritage of our grandparents. I don’t think they realize that … these big companies like and and others have our American farmers now living like in constant debt, forced to follow their rules. I’ve watched the suffering in North Carolina of minority communities who live around and can no longer breathe their air … and I’ve seen workers in the meatpacking plants and how dangerous those plants are. Everybody is losing in this system – except for the massive corporations that have taken over the American food system.

We say an oath that we are a nation of liberty and justice for all, but that’s just words. It’s a civic faith, but I’m one of these people that says before you, "tell me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people." Well, how are we living our civic gospel? How are we living our civic gospel that demands for us to reject the normalcy of injustice, the normalcy of apathy, the normalcy of indifference, and rise to the higher ground of activism, of engagement, of love?

... marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people ... the war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people.

We make a grave mistake when we assume this spirit of connectedness is automatic or inevitable. It is not a birthright. A united country is an enduring struggle. It takes collective work and individual sacrifice. It is not enough to call on others or wait for a leader to emerge who will exalt our national values. I believe this is the question we face, as citizens of this nation: what will we do to affirm this most critical American virtue?

Sometimes you go in the pit before you go to the palace, right? You know? And that was the story of Saint Joseph ... Martin Luther King was slain, they wrote the words from Joseph's brothers when they threw Joseph in the well ... "Behold, here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him, and see what becomes of his dream". Now, King has fallen but his dream has not died, and we are the keepers of the dream. And so, do not give up hope, do not give up faith, alright?

There is great dignity in work – and in America, if you want to provide for your family, you should be able to find a full-time job that pays a fair wage. The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously. Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day’s work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all workers.

When ignorance and bigotry is allied with power, it is a dangerous force.

We are brick city. We are like bricks themselves. We are strong. We are resilient. We are enduring.