It would be against all nature for all the Negroes to be either at the bottom, top, or in between. We will go where the internal drive carries us like everybody else. It is up to the individual.

If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

All my skinfolk ain't kinfolk.

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.

I love myself when I am laughing. . . and then again when I am looking mean and impressive.

Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt.

If you haven't got it, you can't show it. If you have got it, you can't hide it.

Growing older does not automatically mean growing kinder or wiser.

I never assume anything. I anticipate the possibilities and allow my imagination to create the future.

For life in general there is but one decree: youth is a blunder manhood a struggle old age a regret.

More than fans, they felt like a team of morale-boosters who would always be around to remind me of my own worth

Michael is Janet and Janet is Michael.

It is only through the morning gate of the beautiful that you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge. That which we feel here as beauty we shall one day know as truth.

Our lives are given meaning by our actions-accomplishments made while we are "here" that extend beyond our own time.

It is always observable that the physical and the exact sciences are the last to suffer under despotisms.

If popular medicine gave the people wisdom as well as knowledge, it would be the best protection for scientific and well-trained physicians.

Some people come in and really freak. There's movement everywhere, even a dancing housekeeper!