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

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.

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.

It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can't comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there's no life and love inside.

We dreamed of doing but could not bring ourselves to do.

The way to a woman's heart is through your wallet.

My fans are incredible. They mean the world to me, I love them dearly.

I'm pushing ahead on my own - you no longer need a large record company to make you a star.

Living is being happy: seeing, hearing, touching, drinking, eating, urinating, defecating, diving into the water and gazing at the sky, laughing and crying.

Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path.

You always want to try to make something new, and, of course, America is the world leader in economics today.

The rugged trees are mingling Their flowery sprays in love; The ivy climbs the laurel To clasp the boughs above.