One of the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement is that when you travel through the South today, you do not feel overwhelmed by a residue of grievance and hate.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.

Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.

I don’t need a certain number of friends, just a number of friends I can be certain of.

Every small positive change we make in ourselves repays us in confidence in the future.

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.

'Thank you' is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

Blessed are they who can carryA smile on their faceThey are ones who have foundInner peace in life’s mace

Self confident is best formula to success.

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.

It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them.

The artist begins with a vision - a creative operation requiring an effort.

Ultimately, leadership is more about 'being' than 'doing.'

When you smile and project an aura of warmth, kindness, and friendliness, you will attract warms, kindness, and friendliness. Happy people will be drawn to you.

If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information and benevolence.

I was desperate for something to read that dealt realistically with teenage life, and I thought others might be, too.