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.‘

I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking to any leader – or any person – in the world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar their talks.

The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens.

The place of justice is a hallowed place.

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.

We are all alike, on the inside.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

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.

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.

I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.

The poorest people are the sweetest people.

After two years at UCLA, I decided to leave. I was convinced that no amount of education would help a black man get a job.

My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my ‚blackness‘ than ever before. I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don’t belong.

Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.

Racial prejudice, anti-Semitism, or hatred of anyone with different beliefs has no place in the human mind or heart.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we’re from or what we look like or who we love.

You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it’s open season on anybody who stutters.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

So many killings of black men in my lifetime. The physical shock is astounding.

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

The ‚peace movement‘ exists only in the fantasies of the paranoid.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

In matters of truth and justice, there is no difference between large and small problems, for issues concerning the treatment of people are all the same.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

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

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

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

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!

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

If you see oppression of the poor, and justice and righteousness trampled in a country, do not be astounded.

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

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.

Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

Women’s liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It’s men who are discriminated against. They can’t bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

Living in a state of terror was new to many white people in America, but black people have been living in a state of terror in this country for more than 400 years.

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

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

I care about helping to address these problems of social cohesion and understanding what economic problems people think exist.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

There is no scriptural basis for segregation.

I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.

There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.

I think there are a whole host of things that are civil rights, and then there are other things – such as traditional marriage – that, I think, express a community’s concern and regard for a particular institution.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

The country has come a long way in race relations, but the pendulum swings so far back. Everyone wants to be so sensitive.

I love the women’s movement, and I never thought of it as belonging to any particular segment of the population.

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.

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

Bigotry is probably the thing I detest most.

It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.

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.