You climb to reach the summit, but once there, discover that all roads lead down.
Family not only need to consist of merely those whom we share blood, but also for those whom we'd give blood.
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go.
If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.
Human nature is not totally fixed, but on any realistic scale, evolutionary processes are much too slow to affect it.
Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.
The whole universe is contained within a single human being – you.
Dignity does not consist in possessing honours, but in deserving them.
As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them.
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Our true nationality is mankind.
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.
After your death you will be what you were before your birth.
Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into instant flame by an encounter with another human being.
A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.
It’s extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. There is so much more out there than what connects to us.
It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.
Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.
Not only will we have to repent for the sins of bad people; but we also will have to repent for the appalling silence of good people.
