They call upon us to supply American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do.

I don’t think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

High-quality early-childhood programs and health coverage have expanded, and the number of mentoring relationships for at-risk youth has risen dramatically. That progress is encouraging, but it’s not evenly distributed.

In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry ‚Native passes‘ issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

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

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.

What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers.

In some respects, South African apartheid was more vicious than Israeli practices, and in some respects the opposite is true.

I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world.

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

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Sexism is real in this country.

Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

So what we’re talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we’re facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.

Men and women aren’t the same. And they won’t be the same. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be treated fairly.

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.

The white man is destroying the world.

It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.

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.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

AIDS itself is subject to incredible stigma.

The idea of going to school and getting a job is the most destructive one in your brain.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

‚Harry Potter‘ gave me back self respect. Harry gave me a job to do that I loved more than anything else.

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

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.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.

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.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

We should not say that one man’s hour is worth another man’s hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing: he is at the most time’s carcass.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

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 trouble with our people is as soon as they got out of slavery they didn’t want to give the white man nothing else. But the fact is, you got to give em something. Either your money, your land, your woman or your ass.

There is no such thing as part freedom.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

All men are equal before fish.

I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom.

When I was growing up, there were no women in orchestras. Auditioners thought they could tell the difference between a woman playing and a man. Some intelligent person devised a simple solution: Drop a curtain between the auditioners and the people trying out. And, lo and behold, women began to get jobs in symphony orchestras.

Nobody has ever convinced me that race is real.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

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.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

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.

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

I’m a workin‘ girl.

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

If I had been white with the things I did, they never would have allowed me to get out of baseball.

If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

Bigotry is probably the thing I detest most.

Today, Negroes play on every big league club and in every minor league. With millions of other Negroes in other walks of life, we are willing to stand up and be counted for what we believe in. In baseball or out, we are no longer willing to wait until Judgment Day for equality – we want it here on earth as well as in Heaven.

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

This is not a showman’s job. I will not step out of character.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto; I’d say I lived in the ‚hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.