“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.” 

I would say things like 'I am the greatest! I'm pretty! If you talk jive, you'll drop in five! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! I'm pretty!' When white people heard me talking like this, some said, 'That black man talks too much. He's bragging.'

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Joe Frazier got hit more than me - and he doesn't have Parkinson's.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home.

If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.

For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.

Go put your creed into the deed, nor speak with double tongue.

Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams.

I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly.

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

love builds up the broken walland straigtens the crooked path.love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on te ocean tideseach of us is created of itand i suspecteach of us was created for it

I am convinced that words are things, and we simply don't have the machinery to measure what they are. I believe that words are tangible things...

Thought is the seed of action.

Genius is religious.

Blame is safer than praise.

I think when we don't know what to do it's wise to do nothing. Sit down quietly; quiet our hearts and minds and breathe deeply.

The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

Hitch your wagon to a star.