Human nature is not totally fixed, but on any realistic scale, evolutionary processes are much too slow to affect it.
People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.
Are we happy that our grandchildren may never seen an elephant except in a picture book?
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.
One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.
Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.
A man's feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.
Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.
Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain.
The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.
A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society.
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.
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.
It’s extraordinary how self-obsessed human beings are. There is so much more out there than what connects to us.
Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.
A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.
The whole universe is contained within a single human being – you.
It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.
Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence.
