No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn't take a hard look at itself.

Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, 'Can't you remember anything I told you?' and lets fly with a club.

Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man or better than a man, but not like a man.

There's nothing quite so stultifying as having someone around who has all the answers-and gives them to you.

It was the law that if a white man was caught trying to educate a Negro slave, he was liable to prosecution entailing a fine of fifty dollars and a jail sentence. . . Our ignorance was the greatest hold the South had on us. We knew we could run away, but what then?

Generally, a desirable, practically attainable idea, suggested in prophecy, has a chance of forcing itself into reality by its very existence.