There were these great women in Montgomery, [Rosa Louise] Parks was among them. Jo Ann Robinson [who organized the bus boycott] was among them. It's always these ordinary women and men of grace who have been waiting and seething and planning to change things that are unjust that bring movement.

Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree.

So much of America's tragic and costly failure to care for all its children stems from our tendency to distinguish between our own children and other people's children--as if justice were divisible.

There are levels of outrage, and there's a point at which you can't be trespassed upon anymore.

Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.

The literacy level at Mississippi prisons? Fifth grade. Can't read, what are you going to do? If you've got a conviction rap, what are you going to do? It's a real crisis.

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.