My mother and father and many of my relatives had been sharecroppers.

If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about it.

You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.

We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us.

When people tell me nothing has changed, I say come walk in my shoes and I will show you change.

If you're not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if your consistent, you will succeed

I say from time to time that the vote is precious. It's almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society. And we must use it.

Don't give up! Don't give in! Keep the faith! And keep your eyes on the prize!

You cannot give up - you have to be persistent and keep pushing, and press on.

I truly believe that one day we will get there, we will arrive. And if we do it right in America, maybe, just maybe, we can serve as a model for the rest of the world.

You have to have the capacity and the ability to take what people did, and how they did it, and forgive them and move on.

We should all have the freedom to die with majesty in an unworthy life which was subjected to sin and vanity.

Every success in limiting armaments is a sign that the will to achieve mutual understanding exists, and every such success thus supports the fight for international law and order.

If you can't laugh at yourself, make fun of other people.

The only thing we all have in common is that we play tricks in order to force ourselves to abandon the quest. The counter-measure is to persist in spite of all the barriers and disappointments.

One of the greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond to the weaknesses, the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of others.

Warfare is an utterly stupid method of settling differences of interest between different nations.

To some degree we all find life difficult, perplexing, and oppressive. Even when it goes well, as it may for a time, we worry that it probably won't keep on that way.

If you gave up, you've already lost. If you keep going, you get to a new level.

It's an unhealthy habit to say that life is what you make of it, and if you want to be happy, then you can be happy. That's just rubbish, basically.