All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.

My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that’s an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

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

My aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding.

Our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the Negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, sneered at, construed, hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it.

The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been living in a state of terror in this country for more than 400 years.

Justice is the set and constant purpose which gives every man his due.

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.

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.

Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it’s like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can’t really speak on it, because I wasn’t there. I don’t feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.

You could tell ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

We have the best government that money can buy.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

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

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

Girls shouldn’t worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.

My Democratic friends just can’t accept the fact that the American people chose Donald Trump to be president – it’s called democracy. My advice to them, and I say this gently: Fill out a ‚Hurt Feelings Report‘ and let’s move on.

It is possible for one never to transgress a single law and still be a bastard.

I’ve never doubted that apartheid – because it was of itself fundamentally, intrinsically evil – was going to bite the dust eventually.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.

Taste cannot be controlled by law.

More law, less justice.

Science is global. Einstein’s equation, E=mc2, has to reach everywhere. Science is a beautiful gift to humanity, we should not distort it. Science does not differentiate between multiple races.

If you must break the law, do it to seize power: in all other cases observe it.

I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.

It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said – and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded – ‚It’s like hair color. It’s nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It’s not a subject.‘ This was a very healthy attitude.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

Among those who dislike oppression are many who like to oppress.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.