I didn't go to school much, so I taught myself what I knew from reading.

My father was always so mingled with rage at his life.

There is only one real sin and that is to persuade oneself that the second best is anything but second best.

...We try to have things both ways. We’ve always refused to live by the book and the rule; but then why start worrying because the world doesn’t treat us by rule?

What women will say to other women grumbling in their kitchens and complaining and gossiping or what they make clear in their masochism is often the last thing they will say aloud - a man may overhear. Women are the cowards they are because they have been semi-slaves for so long.

Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so.

The white man has settled like a locust over Africa, and, like the locusts in early morning, cannot take flight for the heaviness of the dew on their wings. But the dew that weights the white man is the money that he makes from our labor.