It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.

A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

People are more difficult to work with than machines. And when you break a person, he can't be fixed.

Sickness is mankind's greatest defect.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.

A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning if religion is held to be necessary good for the well-being of the people.

More than 26,000 lives may be lost to the effects of drug abuse this year. This tragic impact is felt in communities across this great nation. Sadly many of these deaths occur among our young people.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honours, but in deserving them.

I just invent, then wait until man comes around to needing what I've invented.

Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.

A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.

How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?

Poverty is... Curable like any disease. Ignorance, dependence, inefficiency, laziness, want of the spirit of enterprise are the real real causes of poverty.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.

As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.