A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.

To the contrary, the government they devised was defective from the start, requiring several amendments, a civil war and momentous social transformation to attain the system of constitutional government, and its respect for the individual freedoms and human rights, we hold as fundamental today.

A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.

The Ku Klux Klan never dies. They just stop wearing sheets because sheets cost too much.

I'm the world's original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.

Surely the fact that a uniformed police officer is wearing his hair below his collar will make him no less identifiable as a policeman.

Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.