“The courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior. The mere fact that a school is black does not mean that it is the product of an unconstitutional violation.”

I was never a liberal. I was radical. I was cynical. I was negative. But, I was never a liberal. I always saw that as too lukewarm for me.

So many of our conversations (about affirmative action) have been dishonest

The only people who have quick answers don’t have the responsibility of making the decisions.

But what I believe is that if a person’s individual rights or right to be a part of our economic system is violated under statute, we aggressively go after it. But we don’t issue mandates to businesses that you’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that.

We’ve talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.

I don’t really have the luxury to be bitter. I don’t have the luxury of having negative things in my life.

My grandfather was a man, when he talked about freedom, his attitude was really interesting. His view was that you had obligations or you had responsibilities, and when you fulfilled those obligations or responsibilities, that then gave you the liberty to do other things.

I don’t know one of my friends who is considered a conservative who has not had to go back and thoroughly think through everything. You do a lot of soul-searching – ’cause we are not going to win any popularity contests.

A theory deeply etched in our law is that a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.

I have to admit that I’m one of those people that thinks the dishwasher is a miracle.

Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

The job of a judge is to figure out what the law says, not what he wants it to say. There is a difference between the role of a judge and that of a policy maker… Judging requires a certain impartiality.

It takes a person with a mission to succeed.

And I thank God I believe in God, or I would probably be enormously angry right now.

Today, now, it is time to move forward, a time to look for what is good in others, what is good in our country. It is time to see what we have in common, what we have to share as human beings and citizens.

The Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it. If followed to its logical extreme, [this approach] would result in an unwarranted expansion of federal power.

I realize i am black, but id like to be viewed as a person, and that is everybodys wish.

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.

My main fight is for freedom and equality.

When I see the leadership roles black women are taking today I am very encouraged.

If you can only be tall because someone else is on their knees, then you have a serious problem. And white people have a very, very serious problem.

We should just come together as people. I think it’s really important to come together as humans, not as white people or black people, green and blue people.