Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no...

Don’t let the man bring you down.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.

Easy reading is damn hard writing. But if it’s right, it’s easy. It’s the other way round, too. If it’s slovenly written, then it’s hard to read. It doesn’t give the reader what the careful...

Courage – you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn’t want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

I became the kind of parent my mother was to me.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

This a a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.

Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.

I couldn’t tell fact from fiction,Or if the dream was trueMy only sure predictionIn this world was you.I’d touch your features inchly. Beard love and dared the cost, The sented spiel reeled me unreal And...

When things were very bad his soul just crawled behind his heart and curled up and went to sleep

You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I’ll rise.

You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‘I forgive. I’m finished with it.’

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Elimination of illiteracy is as serious an issue to our history as the abolition of slavery.

It’s very important to know the neighbor next door and the people down the street and the people in another race.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

How wonderful it is to be an American. We have known the best of times and the worst of times.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs… I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with...

When someone shows youwho they are,believe them the first time.

Each of us has the right and the responsibility to assess the roads which lie ahead, and those over which we have traveled, and if the future road looms ominous or unpromising, and the roads...

When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.

n” word are like poison, whether you take poison from a vial or pour it into Bavarian crystal, it is still poison.

Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.

While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

I don’t think there’s such a thing as autobiographical fiction. If I say it happened, it happened, even if only in my mind.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk...

I would be stupid not to be on my own side. But I’m a human being, too. And I’m on the side of human beings, rather than on the side of crocodiles.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

Human beings love poetry. They don’t even know it sometimes… whether they’re the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber… they’re listening to poetry.

I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t laugh.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.

I answer the heroic question, ‘Death, where is thy sting?’ with ‘It is in my heart and mind and memories.

You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.

Language is man’s way of communicating with his fellow man and it is language alone which separates him from the lower animals.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday...

When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one – it’s the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor...

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‘That’s life.’

It’s good to remember that in crises, natural crises, human beings forget for awhile their ignorances, their biases, their prejudices. For a little while, neighbors help neighbors and strangers help strangers.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

If you were the President of the United States or the Queen of England – you couldn’t have a person who would be more protective than my mother was for me. Which meant really that...

Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.