The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration.

I've been blessed, I think, to have tremendous joy in my life in pursuing my vocation, my calling.

Truth is fine. Absolutely.

When you love poor people THAT MUCH, when you love 'working people' THAT MUCH, that makes you the freest man/woman in the country." - Cornel West in explaining that Obama is A fulfillment of MLK's dream not THE fulfillment of MLK's dream

Optimism is evidence-based.

I recall coming across a line by the late Charles Tilly when he said, "The conditions for the possibility of social movements have been called into question in the twenty-first century." And I said to myself, my god, a society in history without social movements, for me, is very difficult to live in.

It's fashionable to be indifferent to other people's suffering