A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it.

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.

But it was not the room’s disorder which was frightening; it was the fact that when one began searching for the key to this disorder, one realized that it was not to be found in any of the usual places. For this was not a matter of habit or circumstance or temperament; it was a matter of punishment and grief.

You took the best, so why not take the rest?

I conceive of God, in fact, as a means of liberation and not a means to control others.

God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead.