“I always tried to raise money for the Black Panthers through business schemes.”

My father was a master carpenter and builder. Architectural design, engineering design, mechanical design, three-dimensional views, that was my shtick, my forte.

I have quite a few good friends in Philadelphia who were police officers.

The first point was we wanted power to determine our own destiny in our own black community. And what we had done is, we wanted to write a program that was straightforward to the people. We didn’t want to give a long dissertation.

The people have now come to realize that the only way to deal with the oppressor is to deal on our own terms and this was done.

To develop political and economic power in a capitalist society, you need capital.

You don’t fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.

I am not a hoodlum. I’m a community organizer.

There’s nothing wrong with being a cop. There’s nothing wrong with being a white person. It’s about where your heart is…We’ve got to get everyone beyond the xenophobic isolationism.

Our position was: If you don’t attack us, there won’t be any violence; if you bring violence to us, we will defend ourselves.

We don’t hate nobody because of their color. We hate oppression!

I’d have no trouble being the barbecue kingpin of America. I’d just add it to all the other things I am: jazz musician, carpenter, architect, engineer and revolutionary.

Electoral politics was always an objective of the Black Panther party, so Barack Obama is a part of what we dreamed and struggled and died for.

The Black Panther party of Self-Defense is a revolutionary party.

We’re hip to the fact that Superman never saved no black people. You got that?

I think the American Dream should be about a greater progressive legislation that allows for what I call a necessary future world of cooperational humanism.

The only solution to pollution is a people’s humane revolution!

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

We should not be too niggardly in our praise, for men will do more to support a character than to raise one.

Each time we bring to routine activities an awareness of ‘now,’ we raise our vibratory frequency and cause the freshness of the moment to fall upon us.

I do think the job of a writer is to raise questions and nobody likes the questions being asked.

I spoke to my dad, and he said it took close to 90 dollars to raise me. But that was me and my sister, and my sister moved out when she was 16, so sometimes it can knock you up to triple digits to raise a kid.

I’m really sort of cautious about being too didactic. To me there are writers that can do that, but I think they drown in that after a while.

The philosophers Camus and Sartre raise the question whether or not a man can condemn himself.

When the natives met the travelers, guess what they gave All praise due to the seeds they raised