All through the ages the African people have made efforts to deliver themselves from oppressive forces.

You can make a lot of speeches, but the real thing is when you dig a hole, plant a tree, give it water, and make it survive. That's what makes the difference

You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself. That values itself. That understands itself.

You cannot protect the environment unless you empower people, you inform them, and you help them understand that these resources are their own, that they must protect them.

When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.

No matter who or where we are, or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can.

I’m very conscious of the fact that you can’t do it alone. It’s teamwork. When you do it alone you run the risk that when you are no longer there nobody else will do it.

Every person who has ever achieved anything has been knocked down many times. But all of them picked themselves up and kept going, and that is what I have always tried to do.

African women in general need to know that it's OK for them to be the way they are - to see the way they are as a strength, and to be liberated from fear and from silence.

Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.

We cannot tire or give up. We owe it to the present and future generations of all species to rise up and walk!

All he did was breathe life into my soul. I was a conquest. An easy one, and you don't know how badly it hurts to know that I was used and tried for a time. Then thrown back.

Do not say but show you care.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She was who she was - she'd been born this way, Why should she have to change who she was to satisfy someone else?

People who look at my painting say that it makes them happy, like the feeling when you wake up in the morning. And happiness is the goal, isn't it?

The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.

[On Napoleon assuming power in France:] The time of Fable is over, the time of History has begun.

If we're bringing up kids that are so stupid that they kill themselves because of a song, what good are the kids in the first place ?

The instructor is always silent when the test is given... ...When God is silent in your life... You are being tested.

I'm not interested in attacking, I'm interested in astonishing.

The eye must be easy, before it can be pleased.