America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

I'm so tired of waiting, aren't you, for the world to become good and beautiful and kind?

The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.

A world I dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the Earth And every man is free.

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed - Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.

I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.

Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? ... Or does it explode?

If you can have everything at fifty that you wanted when you were fifteen, you're happy.

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same

Your subconscious mind is the universal mind with a universal consciousness.

My books, my paradise!

Your hypocrisy insults my intelligence.

I've always believed the two best anti-poverty programs are work and marriage.

My definition of what makes a journey wholly or partially horrible is boredom.

I'm very eclectic in my music tastes - anything from Nina Simone to Beethoven to Talvin Singh.

Once people get a taste for whatever you want to call it - economic independence, a better lifestyle, and a better life for their children - they grab on to that and don't want to give it up.

The strengthening of our statehood is, at times, deliberately interpreted as authoritarianism.