Equality means equality for all - no exceptions, no 'yes, buts', no asterisked footnotes imposing limits.

We cannot use a double standard for measuring our own and other people's policies. Our demands for democratic practices in other lands will be no more effective than the guarantees of those practiced in our own country.

To be realistic today is to be visionary. To be realistic is to be starry-eyed.

The ugliness of bigotry stands in direct contradiction to the very meaning of America.

There is a lot of difference between failure and defeat. Failure is when you are defeated and neither learn nor contribute anything.

We should have learnt by now that laws and court decisions can only point the way. They can establish criteria of right and wrong. And they can provide a basis for rooting out the evils of bigotry and racism. But they cannot wipe away centuries of oppression and injustice - however much we might desire it.

My philosophy has always been that benefits should percolate up rather than trickle down.