As much as I’m a black person from America, I’m a black person from Africa, too.

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

I seem to be getting a lot of things pushed my way that are strong women. It’s like people see Hackers and they send me offers to play tough women with guns, the kind who wear no bra and a little tank top. I’d like to play strong women who are also very feminine.

Religion is compulsory in English schools, you know.

One of the things that was really an issue was I did not want to just be a woman secretary of state. I wanted to be a secretary of a state who was a woman, but not just chosen for that particular reason.

When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.

We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.

Everyone does things differently on offense. Everyone’s goal is to score points.

God tells us not to judge one another, no matter what anyone’s sexual preferences are or if they’re black, brown or purple.

Why, if someone is good in one field can they not be accepted or given the slightest opportunity to express and be creative in other fields?

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

I can’t imagine what it is like to be raised in a society where their only statues that exist are to you and your father.

Honolulu is a melting pot.

I see Americans of every party, every background, every faith who believe that we are stronger together: black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American; young, old; gay, straight; men, women, folks with disabilities, all pledging allegiance under the same proud flag to this big, bold country that we love. That’s what I see. That’s the America I know!

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.

You cannot talk about race without talking about privilege. And when people start talking about privilege, they get paralyzed by shame.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

I do have a lot of gays in my family now, but some will never come out.

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

Football fans share a universal language that cuts across many cultures and many personality types. A serious football fan is never alone. We are legion, and football is often the only thing we have in common.

Children are all foreigners.

I had one incident where my daughter said that a girl asked if she was a brown person. I said, ‚We’re black. You have black people, white people, Chinese people, Hispanic people; we’re all brought up differently.‘

No one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.

When I do a picture and it’s 90% black, like ‚Bird,‘ I use 90% black people.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

There are a lot of groups that feel a little bit strange around me, because I am inclusive.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

I think that the idea of having a different approach to every single one of my albums is so exciting to me. I never want to make the same record twice. Why do it? What’s the point?

The bottom line is that everyone thinks differently.

I’m tri-racial: African-American, Native American and Euro – that’s the Scotch-Irish part.

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

I think there’s more women that watch me than men, but I don’t look at myself as just a minister to women. My ministry began that way, but I really feel like the Word of God is for everybody.

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.

Everything is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians.

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.

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.

Germany is a great nation only because its people have so much Polish blood in their veins.

Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

Creating whole departments of ethnic, gender, and other ‚studies‘ was part of the price of academic peace. All too often, these ‚studies‘ are about propaganda rather than serious education.

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.

There is always another way to say the same thing that doesn’t look at all like the way you said it before. I don’t know what the reason for this is. I think it is somehow a representation of the simplicity of nature.

We are a nation founded as a rebuke to tyranny. A nation of revolutionaries who refused sovereign reign from afar. Hear me – we’re a nation that says give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. A nation built on our differences, guided by the belief that we’re all created equal.

The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.

The fox has many tricks. The hedgehog has but one. But that is the best of all.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

I love diversity.

DACA recipients risk a lot to come out of the shadows & sign up, but many will tell you the risk is worth being able to live and work in the only country they’ve ever known as home. DACA recipients serve in our military, work in Fortune 100 companies, and conduct important medical research.

I’d love to do a musical. I’ve been known to have a good step or two. I’m half Samoan, you know, and part of our culture is singing and dancing daily.

Today different ethnic groups and different nations come together due to common sense.

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.

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.

To like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white.

Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor – over each other.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships – the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.