What I ask for the Negro is not benevolence, not pity, not sympathy, but simply justice.

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

You are not judged by the height you have risen, but from the depth you have climbed.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution

Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.

Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down.

Without a struggle, there can be no progress.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

I still think of you every day.But I’m trying not to let it hurt me with the same intensity that it used to.

I believe that it is impossible for two individuals not committed to their own and each other’s well being to sustain a healthy and enduring relationship.

The light teaches you to convert life into a festive promenade.

The habit of thinking prevents us at times from experiencing reality, immunises us against it, makes it seem no more than any other thought.

You the human are the highest temple of God. I would rather worship you, than worship any temple, image or book.

I'm against ignorance.

The best way to save face is not to use the lower half.

You must pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a song.

All testify to the coercion and sacrifice which culture imposes on man. To rely on them and deny the decline is to become even more firmly caught in its fatal coils.

It's easy to fall into the trap of just cranking out things that are good enough to sell.