“Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”

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.

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.

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?

Nelson Mandela sat in a South African prison for 27 years. He was nonviolent. He negotiated his way out of jail. His honor and suffering of 27 years in a South African prison is really ultimately what brought about the freedom of South Africa. That is nonviolence.

The more visible signs of protest are gone, but I think there is a realization that the tactics of the late sixties are not sufficient to meet the challenges of the seventies.

We must hold to a rigid accountability those public servants who show unfaithfulness to the interests of the nation or inability to rise to the high level of the new demands upon our strength and our resources.

Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.

When mother is happy, family is happy. When family is happy, nation is happy.

The nation which indulges toward another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.

The best brains of the nation may be found on the last benches of the classroom.

A great nation is like a great man: When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.

I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality.