I am convinced that most people do not grow up...We marry and dare to have children and call that growing up. I think what we do is mostly grow old. We carry accumulation of years in our bodies, and on our faces, but generally our real selves, the children inside, are innocent and shy as magnolias.

I don't think modesty is a very good virtue, if it is a virtue at all. A modest person will drop the modesty in a minute. It's a learned affectation.

It's hard because people think they have something to lose and the truth is they have everything to gain in trying to love somebody.

I thank God that I've lived long enough to see what I have seen, and I pray that people will continue to do better. We are doing better, it may not seem so, but there was a time when people were lynched in the middle of the street and it was not against the law. We are doing better, but we have so much more to do.

One isn't born with courage. One develops it by doing small courageous things.

Remember, people will judge you by your actions not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.

Hatred is the ballast of the rock which lies upon our necks and underfoot.