Some years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then either the Afro-Americans didn't get in the pot or he didn't get melted down.

Equal means getting the same thing, at the same time and in the same place.

A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.

To protest against injustice is the foundation of all our American democracy.

The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

Do what you think is right and let the law catch up.

The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much.

Lawlessness is lawlessness. Anarchy is anarchy is anarchy. Neither race nor color nor frustration is an excuse for either lawlessness or anarchy.

The process of democracy is one of change. Our laws are not frozen into immutable form, they are constantly in the process of revision in response to the needs of a changing society.

History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.

In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute.

A person can’t possibly live without the one person that gave them life.

Much can be gained be contrasting a theory with its alternatives, even ones that look too extreme to be true. You can really understand something when you know what it is not.

You're only a dog old fellow a dog and you've had your day But never a friend of all my friends has been truer than you alway.

Keep your family and old friends around you. That's what I had done and that's what saved my life when it came to being famous.

I blush easily. I have difficulty meeting people's eye, difficulty with public speaking, the normal afflictions of the shy, but not to a paralysing degree.

There are good books and there are bad books, period, that's the distinction.

I enjoy getting to be arty and quirky and weird and all the things that I don't have that much choice with. You just sort of use what you got.

I don't believe in luck. When I am diligent, my luck is generally good. When I am lax, my invariable turns bad.

I don't believe in 'greatest'. I believe in favorites.