O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?

Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.

You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.

Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.

Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.

Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.

We study the past ecological history, with the conscience of the present ecological conditions, the only window to predict the future environmental and climate changes.

I'm not a saint! Thanks God!

Reason and judgment are the qualities of a leader.

As an actor, I've grown considerably. It's taken me years to get comfortable doing a romantic scene and dancing on stage in front of a live audience. I've really opened up a lot.

Before Chernobyl or without Chernobyl the nuclear power was the safe thing.

I never fail to feel let down when I see myself on the screen.

I'm not 100% nice all the time, so I find it quite hard to be really pleasant.

Reason is feminine in nature; it can only give after it has received.

One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals.

I'm not against women. I'm not against men. I just write about me telling my side of how I would say something.