“When one reaches out to help another he touches the face of God.”

The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.

Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give I give myself.

I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best.

A man can be a hero in any profession.

Each of us inevitable; Each of us limitless-each of us with his or her right upon the earth.

Re-examine all that you have been told, dismiss that which insults your soul.

I dream in my dreams all the dreams of the other dreamers. And I become the other dreamers.

Those who love each other shall become invincible.

I am the man, I suffered, I was there.

Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.

Be not ashamed women, You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.

I and this mystery, here we stand.

The gift is to the giver, and comes back most to him – it cannot fail.

These are the days that must happen to you.

I take the good with the bad, and I try to face them both with as much calm and dignity as I can muster.

Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it’s like to be stepped on, I know what it’s like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity.

I’ll be too old to face a difficult championship as the one in America will surely be.

Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.

And the days darken round me, and the years, Among new men, strange faces, other minds.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.

Having grown up in a segregated environment in the south I know what it’s like to be stepped on, I know what it’s like also to see some black hero do well in the face of adversity.