Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

Men and women aren’t the same. And they won’t be the same. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be treated fairly.

If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

Some of the most moving experiences I’ve had are just in black churches in the South, during the Civil Rights Movement, where people were getting beaten, killed, really struggling for the most elementary rights.

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

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.

In the ’50s, too many women, even though they were very smart, they tried to make the man feel that he was brainier. It was a sad thing.

I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world.

The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.

There is no employing class, no working class, no farming class. You may pigeonhole a man or woman as a farmer or a worker or a professional man or an employer or even a banker. But the son of the farmer will be a doctor or a worker or even a banker, and his daughter a teacher. The son of a worker will be an employer – or maybe president.

When we’re falling in love or out of it, that’s when we most need a song that says how we feel. Yeah, I write a lot of songs about boys. And I’m very happy to do that.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

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

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

There is no scriptural basis for segregation.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

We do not hate as long as we still attach a lesser value, but only when we attach an equal or a greater value.

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

Women should be obscene and not heard.

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

Women feel empowered when they can do the things that are supposed to be only for men, you know? It breaks boundaries, it’s liberating, and it’s empowering when you feel like, ‚Well, I can do that, too.‘

Marriage is good enough for the lower classes: they have facilities for desertion that are denied to us.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

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

Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.

If proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American Dream.

We must make it clear that a platform of ‚I hate gay men and women‘ is not a way to become president of the United States.

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 truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.

We must begin seeing other creatures as equal. Existence makes us all equal.

I try to teach through my opinions, through my speeches, how wrong it is to judge people on the basis of what they look like, color of their skin, whether they’re men or women.

Genteel women suppose that those things do not really exist about which it is impossible to talk in polite company.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

I don’t think that women need to smell interesting.

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.

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

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!

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

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

We’re not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

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.

Wealthy men can’t live in an island that is encircled by poverty. We all breathe the same air. We must give a chance to everyone, at least a basic chance.

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

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

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.

The equal right of all citizens to health, education, work, food, security, culture, science, and wellbeing – that is, the same rights we proclaimed when we began our struggle, in addition to those which emerge from our dreams of justice and equality for all inhabitants of our world – is what I wish for all.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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