I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I don’t even call them fans. I don’t like that. They’re literally just a part of my life; they’re a part of my family. I don’t think of them as on a lower level than me. I don’t think I’m anything but equal to all of them. So yeah, they’re basically all of my siblings.

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.

Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

When there’s justice and change, you start to see the cleansing of the soul, and that is what I want for people, and I hope it’s okay for me to say those things.

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

Justice is an unassailable fortress, built on the brow of a mountain which cannot be overthrown by the violence of torrents, nor demolished by the force of armies.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

We reached a high point in my opinion with the passage of the civil rights legislation and Martin Luther King’s success and the crusade of others. I think we kind of breathed a sigh of relief as if we had achieved the end of racial discrimination or white supremacy.

There is no scriptural basis for segregation.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

If segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate today, I would not be a top contender to be president of the United States.

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

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization.

Never pray for justice, because you might get some.

The Middle East is hopeful. There’s hope there.

Free trade is not based on utility but on justice.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.

Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

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.

I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don‘ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side.

My goal is just to be respected as a man when I walk down the street with my family. I don’t care what your job is, you’re not gonna talk down to me, you’re not gonna try to get a rise out of me. I’m a man first. And in establishing that, some interesting things have happened.

The entering class I joined in 1956 included just nine women, up from five in the then second-year class, and only one African American. All professors, in those now-ancient days, were of the same race and sex.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress ‚suspects.‘

I’m a romantic; a sentimental person thinks things will last, a romantic person hopes against hope that they won’t.

Man, all lives matter.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that changed their abortion laws before Roe are not going to change back. So we have a policy that only affects poor women, and it can never be otherwise.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

From the beginning, Mandela and Tambo was besieged with clients. We were not the only African lawyers in South Africa, but we were the only firm of African lawyers. For Africans, we were the firm of first choice and last resort.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

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

To cut short the question of the law of retaliation, we must note that even in its primitive form it can operate only between two individuals of whom one is absolutely innocent, and the other absolutely guilty. The victim, to be sure, is innocent. But can the society that is supposed to represent the victim lay claim to innocence?

Justice will overtake fabricators of lies and false witnesses.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

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 sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

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.‘

If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

Racism is real in this country.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice, may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Fear follows crime and is its punishment.

Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.

Justice that love gives is a surrender, justice that law gives is a punishment.