Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.

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 will no longer take anyone's word for my experience.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.

The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world.

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.