As I said last week in the wake of the grand jury decision, I think Ferguson laid bare a problem that is not unique to St. Louis or that area, and is not unique to our time, and that is a simmering distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities of color.

When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one – it’s the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky – in the big cities, too, for that matter.

I hate victims who respect their executioners.

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

Prime Minister Maliki, released from American restraint, acted on his worst instincts, creating enormous distrust in Iraq’s Kurdish population and deeply embittering Sunnis in western Iraq’s Al Anbar, who lost any confidence in a Baghdad government they saw as adversarial.

It’s difficult to believe that people are still starving in this country because food isn’t available.

I think where political issues invade moral situations, spiritual leaders have to speak out.

I care about helping to address these problems of social cohesion and understanding what economic problems people think exist.

Our veterans who fall on hard times and find themselves without a home deserve more than just handwringing or kind words. They deserve real help that gets them back on their feet.

The existing world economic order constitutes a system of plundering and exploitation like no other in history. Thus, the peoples believe less and less in statements and promises.

Something’s very wrong with a nation that would rather spend money on war than take care of its children.

The poor are discussed as this homogeneous mash, like porridge. The idea that they might be individuals, and be where they are for very different, diverse reasons, again seems to escape some people.

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

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

Even after Independence, we have had to face the poison of casteism and communalism. How long these evils will continue? Whom does it benefit?

It’s a disgrace that we have millions of people who are uninsured.

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

When one side benefits more than the other, that’s a win-lose situation. To the winner it might look like success for a while, but in the long run, it breeds resentment and distrust.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

Giving a poor person money keeps them poor.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

In inner-city, low-income communities of color, there’s such a high correlation in terms of educational quality and success.

Homophobia is real in this country.

Racism is real in this country.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.

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.

If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many ‚bads‘ – bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even ‚bad‘ white males. Only, when you write about ‚bad‘ white males, they don’t complain about it. And need I say that there are ‚good‘ blacks, ‚good‘ homosexuals and ‚good‘ women?

There are thousands of boys being wasted daily to our country through being left to become characterless, and, therefore, useless wasters, a misery to themselves and an eyesore and a danger to the nation. They could be saved if only the right surroundings or environment were given to them at the receptive time of their lives.

I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.

The notion that we have even one single veteran living on the streets should be just considered a travesty to all of us.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

The white man is destroying the world.

I come from a poor family, I have seen poverty. The poor need respect, and it begins with cleanliness.

Poverty is the worst form of violence.

I will not sit in a room with black people when the N word is used. I know it was meant to belittle a person, so I will not sit there and have that poison put on me. Now a black person can say, ‚Oh, you know, I can use this word because I’m black.‘

I’m not for gay marriage, but I’m not for discriminating against people.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.

Today, the news is scandals; that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.

I cannot possibly believe that I have it made while so many black brothers and sisters are hungry, inadequately housed, insufficiently clothed, denied their dignity as they live in slums or barely exist on welfare.

I don’t think there is a single social issue I haven’t spoken on.

Men feel that cruelty to the poor is a kind of cruelty to animals. They never feel that it is an injustice to equals; nay it is treachery to comrades.

Every utopia – let’s just stick with the literary ones – faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don’t fit in?

If you see a black family, it’s looting, but if it’s a white family they are looking for food.

A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.

Sexism is real in this country.

Well, yeah, people are working in our country. You know what? They’re working two and three jobs, and in our America, people should not have to work more than one job to be able to put food on the table and have a roof over their head.

It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Bigotry is the sacred disease.

Violence is both unavoidable and unjustifiable.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed.

The intention and outcome of vulnerability is trust, intimacy and connection. The outcome of oversharing is distrust, disconnection – and usually a little judgment.