The misfortune of the man of color is having been enslaved. The misfortune and inhumanity of the white man are having killed man somewhere.

If the building of a bridge does not enrich the awareness of those who work on it, then the bridge ought not to be built.

Introducing someone as a "Negro poet with a University degree" or again, quite simply, the expression, "a great black poet." These ready-made phrases, which seem in a common-sense way to fill a need-or have a hidden subtlety, a permanent rub.

O my body, make of me always a man who questions!

I came into the world imbued with the will to find a meaning in things, my spirit filled with the desire to attain to the source of the world, and then I found that I was an object in the midst of other objects.

The native must realize that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.

For the beloved should not allow me to turn my infantile fantasies into reality: On the contrary, he should help me to go beyond them.