“Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.”

I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.

Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.

If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.

Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

This so-called tolerance, which, in my opinion, is nothing but a huge indifference.

The man who asks of freedom anything other than itself is born to be a slave.

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform.

Society is endangered not by the great profligacy of a few, but by the laxity of morals amongst all.

Those who prize freedom only for the material benefits it offers have never kept it for long.

Those which we call necessary institutions are simply no more than institutions to which we have become accustomed.

Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.

As you buy tampons you will be hit with the realization that you’re still paying in blood.

Institutionalized racism has been with us pre-Obama, and it obviously will be with us post-Obama.

I have lived my life, and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and the poor – anybody can do that – but against power, against injustice, against oppression, and I have asked no odds from them, and I never shall.

The seed of revolution is repression.

Black culture is cool, but black issues sure aren’t, huh?

No other offense has ever been visited with such severe penalties as seeking to help the oppressed.

I don’t want to be nice. Nice girls can only get what they’re offered.

I’m tired of having to consult a group of old white guys about my black girl craft. They don’t even know what they’re listening for or to.