The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.

You have to have a habitual vision of greatness ... you have to believe in fact that you will refuse to settle for mediocrity. You won't confuse your financial security with your personal integrity, you won't confuse your success with your greatness or your prosperity with your magnanimity ... believe in fact that living is connected to giving.

I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

If you view life as a gold rush, you're going to end up worshiping a golden calf.

When black America is on the move, America is on the move.

Martin Luther King was not a Marxist or a communist, but his radical love leads him to put poor and working people at the center.