Remembering John Lewis In Photographs: 'Be Hopeful, Be Optimistic'

"Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the Democratic process."

"I saw politics as a means of bringing about change. If someone had told me in 1963 that one day I would be in Congress, I would have said, 'You're crazy.'"

"Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

"We learn from our past, and we will make our future much better for all of our citizens where no one is left out or left behind because of their race or their color."

"Some of us almost died. I almost died on that bridge in Selma, Alabama."

"In my estimation, the civil rights movement was a religious phenomenon. When we'd go out to sit in or go out to march, I felt, and I really believe, there was a force in front of us and a force behind us, 'cause sometimes you didn't know what to do."

“It’s amazing to me when I go back to rural Alabama where I grew up or travel through parts of Georgia or other parts of the South, I feel like we’re more than lucky. We are blessed to see all of these smart young people on the move.”

“Growing up in a little town in southeast Alabama, I never would have dreamed that there would be a mural of me on the side of a building in Atlanta that is so big it could be seen from the highway."