The determination to outwit one's situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.

Then I buckled up my shoes, and I started.

The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.

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

Our dehumanization of the Negro then is indivisible from our dehumanization of ourselves; the loss of our own identity is the price we pay for our annulment of his.

I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.

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.