I'm not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to know it.

You can always chase a dream but it will not count if you never catch it.

The cornerstones of this country's operation are economic and political strength and power. The black man doesn't have the economic strength - and it will take time for him to build it. But right now the American black man has the political strength and power to change his destiny overnight.

The white man is going to keep you integration-minded Negroes cooped up here in America, and when you discover that the white man is a trickster, a devil, that he has no intentions of integrating, then you Negroes will run wild.

If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress.

No president ever had more power than [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt.

Respect me, or put me to death.