“The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved, indeed.”

A check or credit card, a Gucci bag strap, anything of value will do. Give as you live.

I think the pain is subsiding. The back is getting better.

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow — red, yellow, brown, black and white — and we’re all precious in God’s sight.

Some people’s lives are worthy of taking the time to say goodbye to.

When I came here, I put my hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. I didn’t put my hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.

Just because a chicken was born in the oven doesn’t make it a biscuit.

A new leadership. A choice. A chance. Don’t cry about what you don’t have. Use what you got.

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow – red, yellow, brown, black and white -and we’re all precious in God’s sight.

I hear that melting pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven’t melted.

We were fundamentally the same. They expressed their anger more willingly. We developed the capacity to internalize our anger, using a nonviolent discipline.

The only justification for ever looking down on somebody is to pick them up.

Tears will get you sympathy, sweat will get you change.

In many ways, history is marked as ‘before’ and ‘after’ Rosa Parks. She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the walls of segregation came down.

The invasion only made matters worse. The occupation will not work, Iraq is unoccupiable, that will not work.

When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.

I’m proud of everything I achieved with ‘Idol,’ and away from ‘Idol’ also. It’s just such a different show now to what it was when I was on it. I didn’t even know it was a TV show until the third audition.

I never wanted to take autographs, always wanted to give them. To do this, you have to achieve something.

All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners. Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they’re not learning, they’re not growing and not moving toward excellence.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.

The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures and emotions as if we’ve already achieved them.

I hope that all of us who were fortunate enough to have benefited will put our time, our resources and our efforts into making sure that kids, particularly kids without means, have a way to achieve.

Knowledge and achievements matter little if we do not yet know how to touch the heart of another and be touched.