“I think my whole life has been one of sort of daring, and sort of sailing against the wind instead of just going with the wind.”

I don’t have any extraordinary gifts. I’m just an average Joe who grew up very poor in rural Alabama.

I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe that we have an obligation to condemn speech that is racist, bigoted, anti-Semitic, or hateful.

It’s a shame and a disgrace that so few people take part in the political process.

We must be headlights and not taillights.

Never become bitter, and in the process, be happy and just go for it.

When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.

You cannot be afraid to speak up and speak out for what you believe. You have to have courage, raw courage.

In spite of all of the things, the issues, that we may be confronting today, I’m very hopeful, very optimistic about the future.

To make it hard, to make it difficult almost impossible for people to cast a vote is not in keeping with the democratic process.

Create a society at peace with itself, and lay down the burden of hate and division.

People must understand that people were beaten, arrested, jailed, and some people were murdered, while attempting to register to vote, or to get others to register to vote.

If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up. You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if your consistent, you will succeed.

Reading the Martin Luther King story, that little comic book, set me on the path that I’m on today.

You have to be optimistic just in keeping with the philosophy of non-violence.

You have to be optimistic in order to continue to move forward.

Nonviolence is one of those immutable principles that we cannot and must not deviate from.