“While other people talked about change, Dr. King used direct action to challenge the system.”

— César Chávez, Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., speech (12 January 1990)

About César Chávez

1927 – 1993

American labor leader and civil-rights activist, co-founder of the United Farm Workers.

“Dr. King realized that the only real wealth comes from helping others.”

“Our sweat and our blood have fallen on this land to make other men rich.”

“We seek our basic, God-given rights as human beings.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“A whole is that which has beginning, middle, and end.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“All becoming and growing—all that guarantees a future—involves pain.”

“The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.”

“Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning.”