The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

In the struggle for justice, the only reward is the opportunity to be in the struggle. You can't expect that you're going to have it tomorrow. You just have to keep working on it.

A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.

The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance and are slowest in getting general acceptance.

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling in the nation must be quickened, the conscience of the nation must be roused, the propriety of the nation must be startled, the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed: and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.

My hopes were never brighter than now.