I had begun to read books and things and, in fact, one of the persons who started me thinking seriously was an atheist that I, another negro inmate whom I'd heard in a discussion with white inmates and who was able to hold his own at all levels. And he impressed me with his knowledge, and I began to listen very carefully to some of the things he said.

A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.

America preaches integration and practices segregation.

Not long ago, an English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was "What's your alma mater?" I told him, "Books." You will never catch me with a free fifteen minutes in which I'm not studying something I feel might be able to help the black man.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that the way to solve this problem is for the white man to give us some territory of our own. And then our people - we have technical know-how, we have agricultural know-how. We have been working for the white man in his business. In every phase of his government we work.

If Christianity had asserted itself in Germany, six million Jews would have lived.

I might add how in the world can you say, or can anyone say, that it will dignify the American Negro to beg in or wade [?] in or plead in when the people in Hungary didn't beg in? They were freedom fighters. And they fought for their freedom.