Top 73 Rosa Parks Quotes
#1. When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night.
Rosa Parks
#2. I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day.
Rosa Parks
#3. Whatever my individual desires were to be free, I was not alone. There were many others who felt the same way.
Rosa Parks
#4. If I can sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.
Rosa Parks
#5. I'd see the bus pass every day ... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.
Rosa Parks
#6. Victory or defeat? It is the slogan of all-powerful militarism in every belligerent nation. And yet, what can victory bring to the proletariat?
Rosa Parks
#7. There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take ... The line between reason and madness grows thinner.
Rosa Parks
#8. There is no future without education.
Rosa Parks
#9. I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace.
Rosa Parks
#10. I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.
Rosa Parks
#11. All I was trying to do was get home from work.
Rosa Parks
#12. Each person must live their life as a model for others.
Rosa Parks
#13. There were times when it would have been easy to fall apart or to go in the opposite direction, but somehow I felt that if I took on more step, someone would come along to join me.
Rosa Parks
#14. God has always given me the strength to say what is right.
Rosa Parks
#15. I did not get on the bus to get arrested I got on the bus to go home.
Rosa Parks
#16. I will always work for human rights for all people.
Rosa Parks
#17. It is better to protest than to accept injustice.
Rosa Parks
#18. You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.
Rosa Parks
#19. The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.
Rosa Parks
#20. I talked and talked of everything I know about the white man's inhuman treatment of the Negro.
Rosa Parks
#21. Let us look at Jim Crow for the criminal he is and what he has done to one life multiplied millions of times over these United States and the world. He walks us on a tightrope from birth.
Rosa Parks
#22. All I was doing was trying to get home from work.
Rosa Parks
#23. It takes more than one person to bring about peace - it takes all of us.
Rosa Parks
#24. Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.
Rosa Parks
#25. It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand. I was quite tired after spending a full day working.
Rosa Parks
#26. Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.
Rosa Parks
#27. People need to free their minds of racial prejudice and believe in equality for all and freedom regardless of race. It would be a good thing if all people were treated equally and justly and not be discriminated against because of race or religion or anything that makes them different from others.
Rosa Parks
#28. Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.
Rosa Parks
#29. I want to be treated like a human being.
Rosa Parks
#30. If I stayed angry at other people, I would miss finding friends among those I was angry with.
Rosa Parks
#31. The Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute accepts people of any race. We don't discriminate against anyone. We teach people to reach their highest potential. I set examples by the way I lead my life.
Rosa Parks
#32. When one's mind is made up ... fear diminishes.
Rosa Parks
#33. I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.
Rosa Parks
#34. My only concern was to get home after a hard day's work.
Rosa Parks
#35. I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free ... so other people would be also free.
Rosa Parks
#36. If you want to be respected for your actions, then your behavior must be above reproach. If our lives demonstrate that we are peaceful, humble, and trusted, this is recognized by others.
Rosa Parks
#37. There is work to do; that is why I cannot stop or sit still. As long as a child needs help, as long as people are not free, there will be work to do. As long as an elderly person is attacked or in need of support, there is work to do. As long as we have bigotry and crime, we have work to do.
Rosa Parks
#38. What really matters is not whether we have problems, but how we go through them. We must keep going on to make it through whatever we are facing.
Rosa Parks
#39. We didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down.
Rosa Parks
#40. My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest ... I did a lot of walking in Montgomery.
Rosa Parks
#41. I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.
Rosa Parks
#42. Nothing in the Golden Rule says that others will treat us as we have treated them. It only says that we must treat others in a way that we would want to be treated.
Rosa Parks
#43. Many whites, even white Southerners told me that even though it may have seemed like the blacks were being freed (by my actions) they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn't just free blacks but them, too.
Rosa Parks
#44. When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was a change.
Rosa Parks
#45. I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.
Rosa Parks
#46. As far back as I can remember, I knew there was something wrong with our way of life when people could be mistreated because of the color of their skin.
Rosa Parks
#47. I had felt for a long time that, if I was ever told to get up so a white person could sit, that I would refuse to do so.
Rosa Parks
#48. I'm tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.
Rosa Parks
#49. Arrest me for sitting on a bus? You may do that.
Rosa Parks
#50. An opportunity was being given to me to do what I had asked of others.
Rosa Parks
#51. To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.
Rosa Parks
#52. I thought of Emmett Till, and when the bus driver ordered me to move to the back, I just couldn't move.
Rosa Parks
#53. Without a vision the people perish, but without courage dreams die.
Rosa Parks
#54. I have never been what you would call just an integrationist. I know I've been called that ... Integrating that bus wouldn't mean more equality. Even when there was segregation, there was plenty of integration in the South, but it was for the benefit and convenience of the white person, not us.
Rosa Parks
#55. As long as there is unemployment, war, crime and all things that go to the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless - there is much to be done, and people need to work together.
Rosa Parks
#57. Whites would accuse you of causing trouble when all you were doing was acting like a normal human being instead of cringing.
Rosa Parks
#58. As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done.
Rosa Parks
#59. I will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that I hold deeply inside. I will no longer act as if I were less than the whole person I know myself inwardly to be.
Rosa Parks
#60. Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.
Rosa Parks
#61. At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.
Rosa Parks
#62. Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression. We soothe ourselves with the salve of attempted indifference, accepting the false pattern set up by the horrible restriction of Jim Crow laws.
Rosa Parks
#63. I had been pushed as far as I could stand
Rosa Parks
#64. I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.
Rosa Parks
#66. I was ready to die but give my consent never. Never, never.
Rosa Parks
#67. I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.
Rosa Parks
#68. Since I have always been a strong believer in God, I knew that He was with me, and only He could get me through that next step
Rosa Parks
#69. Racial pride and self-dignity were emphasized in my family and community.
Rosa Parks
#70. I don't think well of people who are prejudiced against people because of race. The only way for prejudiced people to change is for them to decide for themselves that all human beings should be treated fairly. We can't force them to think that way.
Rosa Parks
#71. I see the energy of young people as a real force for positive change.
Rosa Parks
#72. I have been refused entrance on the buses because I would not pay my fare at the front and go around to the rear door to enter. That was the custom if the bus was crowded up to the point where the white passengers would start occupying.
Rosa Parks
#73. I had given up my seat before, but this day, I was especially tired. Tired from my work as a seamstress, and tired from the ache in my heart.
Rosa Parks
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