I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.

Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.

Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.

Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.

Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.

To a farmer dirt is not a waste, it is wealth.

...light overcomes darkenss. A tiny match can illuminate the darkest room. As long as there is some light somewhere in the universe, [darkness] can be defeated.

Although, in my defense, a nonblinking eye rape was rarely the kind of thing you just eased into.

Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living (...).

Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.

I play sports.

Oh the wonderful knowledge to be found in the stars. Even the smallest things are written there ... if you had but skill to read.

When I start to write something, I suppose I want it to change me, to make me into something not myself.

I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so it's not a waste of time.

I often wish my mother had died so that at least I could get some people's sympathy. But there she was, a perfectly beautiful mother.