In all fields black consciousness seeks to talk to the black man in a language that is his own

I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me or jail me or even kill me, but I'm not going to be what you want me to be.

It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die.

The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.

The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity.

I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth.

Change the way people think and things will never be the same

The wealth of the country must eventually be enjoyed by people of the country

You are either alive and proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can't care anyway.

So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.

In the end, we always regret the life we failed to live.

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.

My heart is a ladle of sweet water brimming over.

We are losing the 'War on Drugs,' which means there's a war going on and people on drugs are winning it.

All forms of power - even based on the consensus of the democratic system - react when they are being attacked, or when those who exercise power become a target.

What separates us is that we expect to be great.

The meaning of our lives is revealed through experiences that at first seem at odds with each other--moments we wish would never end and moments we wish had never begun.

Mountains culminate in peaks, and nations in men.

I pity those who have no taste for reading.

When you drop all your ideas, fantasies and projections about who you are and what freedom is and remain completely empty, this is freedom.