I feel that the same God-force that is the mother and father of the Pope is also the mother and father of the loneliest wino on the planet.

Education means to bring out wisdom. Indoctrination means to push in knowledge.

Wouldn't it be a helluva joke if all this were really burnt cork and you people were being tolerant for nuthin'?

When I went south in the 1960s, I knew I could die. If I went down there and did what I did up in Chicago and made all of those hatin' white folks laugh, then I would have been defeated.

Revolution ain't nothing but an extent of evolution; Evolution is a fact of nature. So when old folks tell me that they don't understand hip hop and the music is too loud, well I guess it means you're not supposed to be in there.

You know why Madison Avenue advertising has never done well in Harlem? We're the only ones who know what it means to be Brand X.

Civil Rights: What black folks are given in the U.S. on the installment plan, as in civil-rights bills. Not to be confused with human rights, which are the dignity, stature, humanity, respect, and freedom belonging to all people by right of their birth.