“This was really what I was supposed to be doing, and it was a great blessing to have discovered this, and to be doing what was God’s will for your life.”

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.

There is a spirit and a need and a man at the beginning of every great human advance. Every one of these must be right for that particular moment of history, or nothing happens.

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.

I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream to make room at the table of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.

You cannot believe in peace at home and not believe in international peace. A war with Iraq will increase anti-American sentiment, create more terrorists, and drain as much as 200 billion taxpayer dollars, which should be invested in human development here in America.

Isn’t it strange how the leaders of nations can talk so eloquently about peace while they prepare for war? … There is no way to make peace while preparing for war.

People have to allow themselves to be used by God and Martin [Luther King, Jr.] committed himself totally to God’s will and purpose and God is always waiting for someone who is willing to do that.

I think if people really read Martin Luther King, Jr., then they would begin to understand what he really represented. The philosophy that he developed, of course, he was greatly influenced by Gandhi and Jesus Christ.

An evil deed is not redeemed by an evil deed in retaliation.

I believe all Americans who believe in freedom, tolerance and human rights have a responsibility to oppose bigotry and prejudice based on sexual orientation.

The process of nonviolence is one that takes time and those of us who’ve suffered, who’ve been persecuted over the years, would like to see things change, you know, overnight.

It doesn’t matter how strong your opinions are. If you don’t use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.

People need role models. They need to see examples of people in peoples’ lives.

The greatest violence is seeing a child go to bed hungry.

To really know someone is to have loved and hated him in turn.

How many must die before we can really have a free and true and peaceful society?

Boxing’s in my genes. I come from a fighting background. My dad and both my uncles were good boxers. I’m blessed with the art of war.

I feel so blessed to just have done what I had done. To be able to just use what God has given me is a blessing. You know, never mind the Grammys, never mind the records, never mind all of that. Just to be able to sing.

Open your eyes, I’m a BLESSING in disguise.

Small is how blessings, healing, progress and increase occur.

We are healed to help others. We are blessed to be a blessing. We are saved to serve, not to sit around and wait for heaven.

I know your lives are busy. I know that you have much to do. But I make you a promise that if you will go to the house of the Lord, you will be blessed; life will be better for you.

I love what I do professionally, I’m really blessed. But my priority is my husband and my children.

Money. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it.