In terms of my involvement in ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and marriage equality and anti-bullying and social emotional learning in schools – these are all things that arise out of my relationship with the world and with my fans.

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

I am not gay, but if I were, I would be the first one running out of the closet.

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

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

More law, less justice.

When you walk into my classroom, I’m going to give it to you straight, just like in the real world, because that’s the only way to prepare you for the real world.

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

I have been working for Africans since I was 18, when I got involved with the Nelson Mandela concerts. I got involved with debt cancellation because Desmond Tutu demanded that the world respond to that situation.

People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.

If you can’t read, the only thing you can do is enjoy the pictures, not the whole story. Reading is the key to knowledge. Knowledge is the key to understanding. So read on, young man! Read on, young lady!

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

I was born realizing the flaws in the criminal justice system.

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.

Remember, it’s as easy to marry a rich woman as a poor woman.

As a small child in England, I had this dream of going to Africa. We didn’t have any money and I was a girl, so everyone except my mother laughed at it. When I left school, there was no money for me to go to university, so I went to secretarial college and got a job.

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 can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree.

For a while… to be an evangelical meant you were a white Republican, and you were against this and against that. I don’t want to be put into that mold, because then people judge you before they even listen… I don’t want to divide the very people I am trying to reach.

The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching.

I’ve never written a political song. Songs can’t save the world. I’ve gone through all that.

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 was terrible in English. I couldn’t stand the subject. It seemed to me ridiculous to worry about whether you spelled something wrong or not, because English spelling is just a human convention – it has nothing to do with anything real, anything from nature.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

You’re not better than anybody else, but you’re not less than anybody else. You’re a child of the Most High God.

If I write badly about blacks, homosexuals and women, it is because of these who I met were that. There are many ‚bads‘ – bad dogs, bad censorship; there are even ‚bad‘ white males. Only, when you write about ‚bad‘ white males, they don’t complain about it. And need I say that there are ‚good‘ blacks, ‚good‘ homosexuals and ‚good‘ women?

Education is the best provision for old age.

The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.

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.

Lectures should go from being like the family singing around the piano to high-quality concerts.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

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.

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.

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

What is black empowerment when it seems to benefit not the vast majority but an elite that tends to be recycled?

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.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness.

I’m a good teacher and am great at observation and picking out what’s wrong and fixing it.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

Research shows that there is only half as much variation in student achievement between schools as there is among classrooms in the same school. If you want your child to get the best education possible, it is actually more important to get him assigned to a great teacher than to a great school.

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world.

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

So we know that it’s not enough for us to simply encourage more people to study abroad. We also need to make sure that they can actually afford it.

Racism and sexism, misogyny and homophobia, they’re so visible. They’re out in the open. When they’re visible, it’s a lot easier to deal with them.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.