You can be defeated by life's unavoidable disappointments, or you can become stronger because of them.

The majority of the Negroes who took part in the year-long boycott of Montgomery's buses were poor and untutored; but they understood the essence of the Montgomery movement; one elderly woman summed it up for the rest. When asked after several weeks of walking whether she was tired, she answered: "My feet is tired, but my soul is at rest."

Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with deeper fangs than freedom never endangered

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

Then I will speak upon the ashes.

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.

Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.

It is experiences of being overwhelmed, nearly destroyed, & surprisingly given life that empower us to pray & sing.

I am tremendously inspired by many women around the world who work under dire circumstances to make a difference for their families.

Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger.

Women have their roots in the ground, and often those roots are starved and ravaged, yet there is not a human alive who cannot reach and touch, with... her fingers, the very top of God's rainbow.