There's racism and sexism and ageism and all sorts of idiocies. But bad news is not news. We've had bad news as a species for a long time. We've had slavery and human sacrifice and the holocaust and brutalities of such measure.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

There is a kind of strength that is almost frightening in Black women. It's as if a steel rod runs right through the head down to the feet.

If you have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is to convince yourself that the person is subhuman. And won't mind the enslavement. The second thing you must do is convince your allies that the person is subhuman so that you have some support. But the third and the unkindest cut of all is to convince that person that he, she, is not quite a first class citizen.

I love wisdom. And you can never be great at anything unless you love it. Not be in love with it, but love the thing, admire the thing. And it seems that if you love the thing, and you don't just want to possess it, it will find you. But if you're in love with the thing, it may run like hell away from you.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.