An American Negro, however deep his sympathies, or however bright his rage, ceases to be simply a black man when he faces a black man from Africa.

Man cannot live by profit alone.

It is very nearly impossible... to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.

The world's definitions are one thing and the life one actually lives is quite another. One cannot allow oneself, nor one's family, friends, or lovers - to say nothing of one's children - to live according to the world's definitions: one must find a way, perpetually, to be stronger and better than that.

There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.

It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian.