I broke every barrier I could to see things as they are.

Segregation is evil; there is no pattern of life which can dehumanize men as can the way of segregation.

To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives: it is the only way we can leave the future open. Man, surrounded by facts, permitting himself no surmise, no intuitive flash, no great hypothesis, no risk, is in a locked cell. Ignorance cannot seal the mind and imagination more surely.

Belief in Some One's right to punish you is the fate of all children in Judaic-Christian culture. But nowhere else, perhaps, have the rich seed-beds of Western homes found such a growing climate for guilt as is produced in the South by the combination of a warm moist evangelism and racial segregation.

The question in crisis or ordeal is not: Are you going to be an extremist? The question is: What kind of extremist are you going to be?

To believe in something not yet proved and to underwrite it with our lives: It is the only way we can leave the future open.

When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.