The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

The female loves to play man against man. And if she is in a position to do it, there is not one who will resist.

It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, you know, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work and that doesn’t make me feel good at all.

I can handle pain.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

National character is only another name for the particular form which the littleness, perversity and baseness of mankind take in every country. Every nation mocks at other nations, and all are right.

I believe that one key to success is to accept truth, no matter how it’s spoken.

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too.

If someone you know makes a bad decision or uses bad judgment, it doesn’t mean you have to allow that to alter your attitude. Why should you allow anyone else’s bad decisions to send you into a tailspin of misery?

One thing Britons have always been celebrated for, and that is being able to stick it out in a tight place.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

For a while… to be an evangelical meant you were a white Republican, and you were against this and against that. I don’t want to be put into that mold, because then people judge you before they even listen… I don’t want to divide the very people I am trying to reach.

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

You get to a point where it’s like you can’t really do anything right, and people will pick on you for whatever decisions you make, so I just try and take no notice and get on with my music.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope… It is not a reflection of all religious people.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‚different‘: scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.

There are many levels of Christianity. There are many notions about God. To believe that God is a person is just one of the notions of God that you can find in Christianity. So, we should not say that there is one Christianity. There are many Christianities.

I just think overall there’s not as many female ministers than there are male ministers.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

There are folks who now know black families – like the Johnsons on ‚Black-ish‘ or the folks on ‚Modern Family.‘ They become part of who you are. You share their pains. You understand their fears. They make you laugh, and they change how you see the world.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

People ask, ‚Should I call you Sir Hopkins?‘ But I say, ‚No. Call me Tony,‘ because it’s too much of a lift-up.

Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

There are no favorites in my office. I treat them all with the same general inconsideration.

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

All these walls that keep us from loving each other as one family or one race – racism, religion, where we grew up, whatever, class, socioeconomic – what makes us be so selfish and prideful, what keeps us from wanting to help the next man, what makes us be so focused on a personal legacy as opposed to the entire legacy of a race.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

We are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Death is acceptable only if it represents the physically necessary passage toward a union, the condition of a metamorphosis.

A fundamentalist can’t bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

One likes people much better when they’re battered down by a prodigious siege of misfortune than when they triumph.

Our constitution is a ray of hope: H for harmony, O for Opportunity, P for people’s participation and E for equality.

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

That’s when you know you’re the greatest: when you’re the greatest, and people still put odds against you.

El Salvador is a democracy so it’s not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans… I have heard a single voice.

I love it when Muslims go to war with each other, as I do when the Christians do, because it shows there’s no such thing as the Christian world and the Islamic world. That’s all crap.

Let’s teach kids, at the kindergarten level, what the contributions of people of color were to building the United States of America.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

I’m always pushing for human responsibility. Given that chimpanzees and many other animals are sentient and sapient, then we should treat them with respect.

If we do not lift up women and families, everyone will fall short.

There is no scriptural basis for segregation.

Once you feel loved by the universe, you’re already accepted, and you’re not really concerned about offending people.