I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.

It is right to give every man his due.

Trouble brews when we steal from the poor and give to the rich.

I speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition.

I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often overlooked aspect of basic human rights. And it’s one that’s easily corrected. The reason I say that is that many of the diseases that we treat around the world, I knew when I was a child. My mother was a registered nurse. And they no longer exist in our country.

We still have many neighborhoods that are racially identified. We still have many schools that even though the days of state-enforced segregation are gone, segregation because of geographical boundaries remains.

If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

I don’t think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

The man who could go to Africa and rob her of her children, and then sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hand.

My son Emilio is running for Congress to continue the fight for social justice.

Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

The black press, some liberal sportswriters, and even a few politicians were banging away at those Jim Crow barriers in baseball. I never expected the walls to come tumbling down in my lifetime.

We don’t want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.

All this talk about equality. The only thing people really have in common is that they are all going to die.

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

People who have been hardworking, tax paying, those people ought to be given an opportunity to be on a track that leads towards citizenship, and if that happened, then they wouldn’t be prey to the employers who say, ‚We want you because we know that you work for a salary we could not lawfully pay anyone else.‘

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

‚Whole Women’s Health‘ made it very clear that poor women were no longer going to be left out.

Here’s the thing. We do a movie with a predominantly black cast, and it’s put in a category of being a black film. When other movies are done with a predominantly white cast, we don’t call them a white film. I’m trying to remove the stigma off things they call black films.

Women should be obscene and not heard.

There is but one stage for the peasant and the actor.

Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.

Blacks, especially in America, have been raised with a slave mentality – they don’t feel that they have the right to speak as loud as possible.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

I ain’t never called nobody no redskin. I’ve never been mad, like, ‚Get out of this restaurant, you redskin.‘

We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

It’s annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

In the summer of 1966, I went to Mississippi to be in the heart of the civil-rights movement, helping people who had been thrown off the farms or taken off the welfare roles for registering to vote. While working there, I met the civil-rights lawyer I later married – we became an interracial couple.

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

We’re talking about in the Proposition 8 case fundamental rights, civil rights. I offer no apology for the position I took in Prop. 8.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

The sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

I’m not focused on the gay and lesbian movement.

Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise.

I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.

We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-racism.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color. Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country.

So what we’re talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we’re facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.

I favor the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it must be enforced at gunpoint if necessary.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other’s welfare, social justice can never be attained.

He who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.