“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

Truth is more than a mental exercise.

Some years ago I said in an opinion that if this country is a melting pot, then either the Afro-Americans didn’t get in the pot or he didn’t get melted down.

A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi… has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It’s not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for.

A man can make what he wants of himself if he truly believes that he must be ready for hard work and many heartbreaks.

It is a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries.

If the First Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.

The United States has been called the melting pot of the world. But it seems to me that the colored man either missed getting into the pot or he got melted down.

The ban directly hampers the partys ability to spread its message and hamstrings voters seeking to inform themselves about the candidates and issues.

Sometimes history takes things into its own hands.

I’m the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.

The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit – a spirit that demands self-expression .

The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men’s minds.

The death penalty is no more effective a deterrent than life imprisonment. It is also evident that the burden of capital punishment falls upon the poor, the ignorant and the underprivileged members of society.

Ending racial discrimination in jury selection can be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.

We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water.

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to help others without expecting anything in return.

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending.

Smile at each other. Smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other- it doesn’t matter who it is- and that will help to grow up in greater love for each other.

You see, God helps only people who work hard. That principle is very clear.

Make-up can only make you look pretty on the outside but it doesn’t help if your ugly on the inside. Unless you eat the make-up.