The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

The real victim of bigotry is the white man who hides his weakness under his myth of superiority.

I'm beginning to think that maybe everything that happens makes sense. Like, if it didn't make sense, how could it happen?

I prefer sinners and madmen, who can learn, who can change, who can teach-or people like myself, if I may say so, who are not afraid to eat a lobster alone as they take on their shoulders the monumental weight of thirty years

For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.

The establishment of democracy on the American continent was scarcely as radical a break with the past as was the necessity, which Americans faced, of broadening this concept to include black men.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.