You must leave this world a better place than it would have been if you had not existed.

It occurred to me that no matter where I lived, geography could not save me.

People leave when life becomes untenable where they are.

America is made up of people who came from someplace else. Even the Native Americans came over the Bering strait... America is what it is because people came from someplace else.

It was illegal for black people and white people to play checkers together in Birmingham. And there were even black and white Bibles to swear to tell the truth on in many parts of the South.

[The Great Migration] had such an effect on almost every aspect of our lives - from the music that we listen to to the politics of our country to the ways the cities even look and feel.

My parents absolutely did not think of themselves as part of the Great Migration. They knew they were part of a great wave. No one really talked about it in those terms or gave it a name.

From Louisiana, he followed the hyphens in the road that blurred together toward a faraway place, bridging unrelated things as hyphens do.

The worst enemy of our humanity is our self-doubt.

Nick‘s eyes widened as a total state of befuddled huh possessed him. Was he in theTwilight Zone?

They keep telling us that in war truth is the first casualty, which is nonsense since it implies that in times of peace truth stays out of the sick bay or the graveyard.

More than the Big Mac, Coca Cola, or Levi's 501 jeans, the dollar is surely the United States' signature export.

Some have said there is no subtlety to destruction. You know what? They're dead.

If one devalues rationality, the world tends to fall apart.

One reader is better than another in proportion as he is able of a greater range of activity in reading and exerts more effort.

Ability is noting without opportunity.

I believe one of the most important priorities is to do whatever we do as well as we can.

We must not be contented however with praying, without exerting ourselves in the use of means for the obtaining of those things we pray for.