I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble.

Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.

Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me.

We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.

Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: ‘The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.’

My activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.

People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.