You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.

Always be smarter than the people who hire you.

I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!

My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

Hope is bulletproof, truth just hard to hit

Gratitude must come from a place of true sincerity to be effective. Without sincerity, the experience is incomplete.

Nice to be born in this universe. Thanks dad and mom.

Libraries are about books. Books have no color. And they don't care who reads them.

My mom and dad always tried to make Christmas special for us. We were poor, but it's funny because we had no idea.

The real scholar learns how to evolve the unknown from the known, and draws near the master.

A term like capitalism is incredibly slippery, because there's such a range of different kinds of market economies.

To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.

Every time you finish a book, you have a terrible feeling that there's just never going to be another one. But fortunately, so far, the next one has always shown up.