The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

The ideals and principles for which Dr King fought have never been forgotten and are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Winning, to me, is easy. Winning more is the challenge.

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point – a cactus, not a cushion.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

I think beating myself up sometimes and knowing I am not happy when I do it makes me work harder to do a good job.

Do your job. Do it the best you can. Do it right, because somebody, sometimes your best friend, is waiting for you to screw up so she can take your place.

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

Someone said to me, ‚If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?‘ My answer was then and still is, ‚If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.‘

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

It is impossible to struggle for civil rights, equal rights for blacks, without including whites. Because equal rights, fair play, justice, are all like the air: we all have it, or none of us has it. That is the truth of it.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

The polls show that concern over inequality among the general public rose pretty sharply after the Occupy movement started, very probably as a consequence. And there are other policy issues that came to the fore, which are significant.

We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family it says they’re looting, if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

I bear a charmed life.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

I never – you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age, it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

All black Americans have slave names. They have white names; names that the slave master has given to them.

Only he is successful in his business who makes that pursuit which affords him the highest pleasure sustain him.

I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

I think my message to the politicians who have within their power the ability to make change is, ‚Do you really, really not care about the future of your great-grandchildren? Because if we let the world continue to be destroyed the way we are now, what’s the world going to be like for your great-grandchildren?‘

What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

I do believe in self-help.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

Never confuse motion with action.