All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive.

A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence.

Hatred destroys the person who hates.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

When human rights are abused on a grand scale, the broth of purity boils and feeds the rebellion of a new order.

Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. what are they waiting for?" "Well […] I guess people wait in order to make sure of what they feel." "And when you have waited—-has it made you sure?

We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.