“I want to be treated like a human being.”

I’m tired of being treated like a second-class citizen.

To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try.

That was a difference between black slaves and white indentured servants. Black slaves were usually not allowed to keep their names, but were given new names by their owners.

It takes more than one person to bring about peace – it takes all of us.

God has always given me the strength to say what is right.

I talked and talked of everything I know about the white man’s inhuman treatment of the Negro.

I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.

I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free, so other people would be also free.

You cannot always control the powers-that-be. You just have to have faith and stand by the things you believe in.

One person can change the world.

Each person must live their life as a model for others.

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

My only concern was to get home after a hard day’s work.

I knew someone had to take the first step and I made up my mind not to move.

Many whites, even white Southerners told me that even though it may have seemed like the blacks were being freed (by my actions) they felt more free and at ease themselves. They thought that my action didn’t just free blacks but them, too.

There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.

I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there’s some kind of change.

What are the lessons to be learned from this journey of the mind through the universe? That humans are emotionally fragile, perennially gullible, hopelessly ignorant masters of an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos. Have a nice day.

When you finally accept that it’s OK not to have answers and it’s OK not to be perfect, you realize that feeling confused is a normal part of what it is to be a human being.

Solitude, isolation, are painful things, and beyond human endurance.

Language was invented because of the deep human need to complain.

Some people are just light, glow, hope; human stars.

You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernatural aid I would hardly be a human being.

In human relationships, kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths.