Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth.

An English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, ‘What’s your alma mater?’ I told him, ‘Books.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says number one, [Negro] must know - have a knowledge of himself. And this gives him confidence in himself. He - he has been brainwashed by the educational system that exists here in America to the point where he feels he was a savage in the jungle when he was - before he was brought here. And this destroys his morale.

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make the criminal look like he's a the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

22 million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America.

I don’t feel that I am a visitor in Ghana or in any part of Africa. I feel that I am at home.

I'm a field Negro. The masses are the field Negroes. When they see this man's house on fire, you don't hear these little Negroes talking about 'our government is in trouble'. They say, 'The government is in trouble.'