Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person.

She was twenty and had come to realize that, though she had a voice, she wasn't a singer; that to endure and embrace the life of a singer demands a whole lot more than a voice.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

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.

Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.

Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.