The only time the white man is brotherly toward you is when he can use you, when he can exploit you, when he will oppress you, when you will submit to him.

How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours?

I myself have never been concerned with whether we are considered known or unknown. It's no problem of ours.

I have rarely talked to anyone about my mother, for I believe that I am capable of killing a person, without hesitation, who happened to make the wrong kind of remark about my mother. So I purposely don't make any opening for some fool to step into.

I was with Essien Udom in Nigeria.

Ralph Bunche, who is an internationally recognized and respected diplomat, can't stay in a hotel in Georgia, which means that no matter what the accomplishment, the intellectual, the academic, or professional level of a negro is, collectively he stands condemned.

You don't do anything to further your stay aboard a ship that you see is going to go down to the bottom of the ocean.