The high point of civilization is that you can hate me and I can hate you but we develop an etiquette that allows us to deal with each other because if we acted solely upon our impulse we'd probably go to war.

As you know from reading many of these Negro writers, we don't deal too much with the discussion of democracy and what it means and how improvisation fits in all that.

Our democratic richness arrives when we're able to comprehend our collective humanity accurately.

People don't really think other people are the same.

When people conclude that all is futile, then the absurd becomes the norm.

When a violent minority that crosses color lines comes to believe that killing those you know or do not know is a reasonable solution to problems, we are in need of another vision.

I don't know any women who don't think about what they look like, and I don't know any men who don't think about what women look like.