Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.

God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members.

All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now

Let us leave hurry to slaves.

Today is a king in disguise.

Grow angry slowly – there’s plenty of time.

The imagination is not a talent of some men but is the health of every man.

You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise!

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

I know for sure that loves saves me and that it is here to save us all.

My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

I know why the caged bird sings.

Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaking need for an unshakable God. My pretty Black brother was my Kingdom Come.

Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it empowers us to develop courage; to trust that courage and build bridges with it; to trust those bridges and cross over them so we can attempt to reach each other.

Courage allows the successful woman to fail - and to learn powerful lessons from the failure - so that in the end, she didn't fail at all.

What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.

Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less lonely by your songs, or by the empty pots made less tragic by your tales? If we were a people much given to revealing secrets, we might raise monuments and sacrifice to the memories of our poets, but slavery cured us of that weakness.

I am a child of God. I always carry that with me.

On this platform of peace, we can create a language to translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.

I thought if I could face the worst danger voluntarily, and triumph, I would forever have power over it.

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power.

To those who are given much, much is expected.

People will never forget how you made them feel.

Life is going to give you just what you put in it. Put your whole heart in everything you do, and pray, then you can wait.

You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!

Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.

I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.

I am a Woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal Woman, that's me.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant.

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.

I sustain myself with the love of family.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

We spend precious hours fearing the inevitable. It would be wise to use that time adoring our families, cherishing our friends and living our lives.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.

In diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

You can never be great at anything unless you love it.