Greatness is largely a social accident, and almost always socially supported.

I do feel, in my dreamings and yearnings, so undiscovered by those who are able to help me.

I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity.

From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.

What does the Negro want? His answer is very simple. He wants only what all other Americans want. He wants opportunity to make real what the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights say, what the Four Freedoms establish. While he knows these ideals are open to no man completely, he wants only his equal chance to obtain them.

Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist.

Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service. Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.