The thought of' the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies.

The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself.

If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.

Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

No man knows what he can do until he tries.

As another has well said, to handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.

The real servant of the people must live among them, think with them, feel for them, and die for them.

In our so-called democracy we are accustomed to give the majority what they want rather than educate them to understand what is best for them.

For me, education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.

The mere imparting of information is not education.

At night we sort the energy that by day we sense.

No man, no power, can bind the action of wizardry or still the words of power. For they are the very words of Making, and one who could silence them could unmake the world.

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices

Our best canvas is all around us, in everything we touch and do.

Words are the light and sound of our existence, the heat lightning by which the night is illuminated.

Hemp is Earth's number-one biomass resource; it is capable of producing 10 tons per acre in four months.

And that is my definition of democracy, the right to be in a minority and not be suppressed

A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire, or preserve his freedom.

A decade passed between King's assassination and my birth, but the older I get, the more acutely aware I become that 10 years is nothing.

My verse has brought me no roubles to spare: no craftsmen have made mahogany chairs for my house.