John Lewis

I think President Barack Obama has been a good president.

The press is supposed to serve as a check on government.

We should be creative, and we should accommodate the needs of every community to open up the democratic process. We should make it easy and accessible for every citizen to participate.

Customs, traditions, laws should be flexible, within good reason, if that is what it takes to make our democracy work.

You have to go with your gut sometimes, and how you feel.

I think my whole life has been one of sort of daring, and sort of sailing against the wind instead of just going with the wind.

The party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland. The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater.

The March on Washington was a March for Jobs and Freedom. There are still too many people who are unemployed or underemployed in America - they're black, white, Latino, Native American and Asian American.

I studied the philosophy and the discipline of non-violence in Nashville as a student. And I staged a sitting-in in the fall of 1959 and got arrested the first time in February 1960.

When I was 15 years old in 1955, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. on our radio.

I travel all the time, but when I come back to the South, I see such progress. In a real sense, a great deal of the South has been redeemed. People feel freer, more complete, more whole, because of what happened in the movement.

I always felt growing up that in the South there was evil but also good - so much good.

I believe in forgiveness; I believe in trying to work with people.

I couldn't say no to A. Philip Randolph and no to Martin Luther King, Jr. These two men, I loved them, I admired them, and they were my heroes.

Following the teaching of Gandhi and Thoreau, Dr. King, it set me on a path. And I never looked back.

Many young people, many children, are being abused, being put down, being bullied because of their sexual orientation.

I wanted young people to know that I was just a typical child.

Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I'm on today.

We must bring the issue of mental illness out into the sunlight, out of the shadow, out of the closet, deal with it, treat people, have centers where people can get the necessary help.

Too many people struggled, suffered, and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote.