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

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

Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.

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.

I personally have always been in favor of people who are gay being permitted to marry legally – and I still feel that way.

It’s a well-known fact that tall people are evil.

June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.

A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.

A man is as good as he has to be, and a woman as bad as she dares.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

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

Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

Before God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish.

Our constitution is a ray of hope: H for harmony, O for Opportunity, P for people’s participation and E for equality.

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

Eternal principles that govern happiness apply equally to all.

It doesn’t matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I’m a woman or a man.

The Nation of Islam’s main focus was teaching black pride and self-awareness. Why should we keep trying to force ourselves into white restaurants and schools when white people didn’t want us? Why not clean up our own neighborhoods and schools instead of trying to move out of them and into white people’s neighborhoods?

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

George Bush doesn’t care about black people.

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.

Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they’re being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I’m black. I tell them, ‚Don’t stop now. If I shot somebody you’d mention it.‘

I am a strong believer that without justice, there is no peace. No lasting peace, anyway.

I’m not denyin‘ the women are foolish. God Almighty made ‚em to match the men.

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

I liberate minds with my music. That’s more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.

We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination.

In the early 1940s, as a young teenager, I was utterly appalled by the racist and jingoist hysteria of the anti-Japanese propaganda. The Germans were evil, but treated with some respect: They were, after all, blond Aryan types, just like our imaginary self-image. Japanese were mere vermin, to be crushed like ants.

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

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.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.

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 hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I see myself in all the people in the world who are suffering and who are very badly treated and who are often made to feel that they have no place on this Earth.

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

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free – honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

AIDS itself is subject to incredible stigma.

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.

What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they’re not discriminated on the job.

There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.

Every citizen has the real right to receive general education and professional training at no cost, something that the United States has not been able to ensure for all its inhabitants.

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.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

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

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.

I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters, a president who truly believes in the vision that our Founders put forth all those years ago that we are all created equal, each a beloved part of the great American story.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.

Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?

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.

One child must never be set above another, even in casual conversation, not to mention in speeches that circle the globe.

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

That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.