An organization which claims to speak for the needs of a community must speak in the tone of that community.

If a white man wants to lynch me, that’s his problem. If he’s got the power to lynch me, that’s my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it’s a question of power.

Our grandfathers had to run, run, run. My generation's out of breath. We ain't running no more.

There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.

The secret of life is to have no fear; it's the only way to function.

Our noses are broad, our lips are thick, our hair is nappy-we are black and beautiful!

What a liberal really wants is to bring about change that will not in any way endanger his position.

Now, then, in order to understand white supremacy we must dismiss the fallacious notion that white people can give anybody their freedom.

Go home and tell your daughters they are beautiful.

One does not fight to influence change and then leave the change to someone else to bring about.

The time for running has come to an end. You tell them white folk in Mississippi that all the scared niggers are dead!

Happiness cannot be owned.It is in living in the spiritual experience of living every breath, that lets us taste a moment of it.

—fear comes only when you don’t have faith in the outcome. And boredom comes only when you believe there’s nothing new worth learning. I simply can’t understand how any of that will occur today.

Without challenges we would literally wither and die (which also would be perfect).

If elephants didn't exist, you couldn't invent one. They belong to a small group of living things so unlikely they challenge credulity and common sense.

The key to good decision making is not knowledge. It is understanding. We are swimming in the former. We are desperately lacking in the latter.

The woman who does not choose to love should cut the matter short at once, by holding out no hopes to her suitor.

What remains is solitude.

My big advantage was to have my father accept me as first-generation.

I don't want to lie. I can't tell the truth. So it's over.

I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.