I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.

Drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer hides.

The relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others in order to end the racial nightmare and acheive our country.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.

If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free.

I can't be a pessimist, because I am alive.