Ours is supposed to be a government in which classes and distinctions melt into a harmonious whole. Until we reach this ideal of government, we will be a distracted, contentious people.

The white men of the South had better make up their minds that the blacks will remain in the South just as long as corn will tassel and cotton will bloom into whiteness.

Men may be spoiled by education, even as they are spoiled by illiteracy. Education is the preparation of the mind for future work, hence men should be educated with special reference to the work.

It is not safe in the republican form of government that clannishness should exist either by compulsory or voluntary reason. It is not good for the government and it is not good for the individual.

Mental inertia is death.

We are African in origin and American in birth.

Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion; it shows that society is rotten to the core.

We must learn to lean upon ourselves; we must learn to plan and execute business enterprises of our own; we must learn to venture our pennies if we would gain dollars.

The race cannot succeed, nor build strong citizens, until we have a race of women competent to do more than bear a brood of negative men.

Mob law is the most forcible expression of an abnormal public opinion it shows that society is rotten to the core.

Most of us will perish before knowing who we are and why we came here.

Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden.

The discovery of what is true and the practice of that which is good are the two most important objects of philosophy.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Poetry and preaching do not go well together; when the preacher mounts the pulpit the poet usually goes away.

There is a ceiling to it and there's a stigma. Billy Crystal as brilliant as he is, he's never going to be thought of as a contemporary like Alan Arkin.

Joe Henderson, who I maybe, to me, if I had to pick one improviser in my life that I saw live that blew my mind most, especially as a teenager.

No one can teach your child like you can. No nanny, Bible school teacher, aunt, or uncle has your authority. What a phenomenal privilege is yours.

A lot of underground hip-hop will inspire me as far as rhyme patterns - really wordy, intelligent lyrics.

I think American audiences like gangster movies. It's part of the culture.