In everything, without doubt, truth has the advantage over imitation.

Politicians are not born; they are excreted.

Poor is the nation that has no heroes, but poorer still is the nation that having heroes, fails to remember and honor them.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Read at every wait; read at all hours; read within leisure; read in times of labor; read as one goes in; read as one goest out. The task of the educated mind is simply put: read to lead.

We learn nothing from history except that we learn nothing from history.

It is not enough to acquire wisdom, it is necessary to employ it.

Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.

Nothing is more unreliable than the populace, nothing more obscure than human intentions, nothing more deceptive than the whole electoral system.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

No one has the right to enter literature without fresh new ideas. We’ve got too many dexterous drudges as it is.

Accepting others is the heart of kindness. Kindness is the root of being accepted.

The only God-ordained fear is the fear of God, and if we fear Him, we don't have to fear anyone or anything else.

If artists cannot speak up for human dignity or rights, then who else will do it?

Somebody's real voice is probably the hardest one that somebody could attempt.

I wouldn't mind getting emotionally involved with a woman.

Let the other guy have whatever he wants before the fight. Once the bell rings he's gonna be disappointed anyway.

Sure to prove indispensable for the study of Black Power.

Don't judge anyone but don't trust anyone.

I didn't need to borrow money from the record company, because if I had my own publishing company, and I had my own writers, I'd have enough to get and do whatever I wanted to do.