We have never seen health as a right. It has been conceived as a privilege, available only to those who can afford it. This is the real reason the American health care system is in such a scandalous state.

I had met far more discrimination because I am a woman than because I am black.

Be as bold as the first man or [woman] to eat an oyster.

As there were no black Founding Fathers, there were no founding mothers - a great pity, on both counts.

Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt.

Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation, hunger, sickness, and futility in which many other Americans live...They won't become involved in economic or political change until something brings the seriousness of the situation home to them.

I have never cared too much what people say. What I am interested in is what they do.