My mother helped me understand how not to show off what I knew, but how to use it so that others might benefit.

When you're a black woman, you seldom get to do what you just want to do; you always do what you have to do.

Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop.

Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals.

Civil rights are civil rights. There are no persons who are not entitled to their civil rights... We have to recognize that we have a long way to go, but we have to go that way together.

If the times aren't ripe, you have to ripen the times.

We've got to work to save our children and do it with full respect for the fact that if we do not, no one else is going to do it.