There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.

There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.

For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for whatthey become.

At four o'clock in the morning, when everyone is drunk enough, then extraordinary things can happen.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.