Sometimes rejection in life is really redirection.

The data is going to indicate sadly that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category.

The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.

Don't envy someone else's gift. Discover your own.

The storm came. Lives were washed away. Ancient pains resurfaced. Now it is time for a sea of change.

I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.

We need to elect leaders who understand that leadership is about loving and serving people, not about self-advancement.

Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, never hesitate to question those in authority.

Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.

Capitalism is like a child: if you want the child to grow up free and productive, somebody's got to look over the shoulder of that child.

Why don't we scale up those things that do work.

In politics, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas - no feelings, but interests.

... she had painted her lips and was holding in her hollowed hands a beautiful, banal, Eden-red apple.

To write is to stand at the edge of a bottomless well, unafraid of falling in.

I hate rats. I had a pet rat to try and overcome it. I even gave him mouth-to mouth resuscitation when he had a heart attack. But I couldn't conquer it.

I believe that in Europe, we have a collective leadership.

Oh, wonderful. I killed his father. He hates me. He knows how to make bombs. Come on, Wedge, how does this story end?

You can easily tell if a person is lying and cheating on you if they say, I love you. I would never lie to you or cheat on you.

Relations between States, as between individuals, must be regulated not by armed force, but in accordance with...truth, justice and vigorous and sincere co-operation.

I didn't want to be greedy. It's a mark of bad character and I always believed that pigs go the slaughterhouse.

Effort is the one strictly undervalued and original contribution we make to this world.