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

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.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.

We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

Nobody has ever convinced me that race is real.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

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.

Religions in general have to rediscover their roots. In Hinduism and the Koran, animals are described as equals. If you walk into a cathedral and look at the decorations of early Christianity, there are vines, animals, creatures and birds thriving all over the stonework.

The protestor I think will speak up for the world’s poorest.

I can’t help the way you was born if you was gay.

The white man is destroying the world.

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.

Income inequity has to be addressed.

I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.

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

I want a president with a record of public service: someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase form and fortune for ourselves; we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

The revolution is a dictatorship of the exploited against the exploiters.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

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

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

Anybody who has been discriminated against, who comes from a group that’s been discriminated against, knows what it’s like.

Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.

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

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.

Be nice to the whites, they need you to rediscover their humanity.

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

A strong man doesn’t have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn’t match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

We make the future sustainable when we invest in the poor, not when we insist on their suffering.

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.

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

The uniform makes for brotherhood, since when universally adopted it covers up all differences of class and country.

Infinites, when considered absolutely without any restriction or limitation, are neither equal nor unequal, nor have any certain proportion one to another, and therefore, the principle that all infinites are equal is a precarious one.

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.

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

Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

We need to recognize that the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color. Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country.

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

Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president?

The assertion that ‚all men are created equal‘ was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.

The right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.

The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.

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

I always have been an activist for things that were just authentically a part of my life, that I felt connected to.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal.

In the past, there was active discrimination against women in science. That has now gone, and although there are residual effects, these are not enough to account for the small numbers of women, particularly in mathematics and physics.

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

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

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

Palestinians have no wealth or power.

Four legs good, two legs bad.