“Time begins the healing process of wounds cut deeply by oppression.”

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 will always work for human rights for all people.

Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today’s mighty oak is yesterday’s nut that held its ground.

There is no future without education.

When people made up their minds that they wanted to be free and took action, then there was a change.

I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.

Have you ever been hurt and the place tries to heal a bit, and you just pull the scar off of it over and over again.

I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.

Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it.

If I can sit down for freedom, you can stand up for children.

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

I learned to put my trust in God and to see Him as my strength.

I think when you say you’re happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for.

I’m very scared to do it. What if I don’t come back? With the whole light-years thing, what if I come back 10,000 years later, and everyone I know is dead? I’ll be like, ‘Great. Now I have to start all over’.

Whatever God is urging you to clear away cannot begin to be compared to what He ultimately wants to bring you.

For the first time i began to think, consciously and deliberately of religion and other worlds. The Hindu religion especially went up in my estimation; not the ritual or ceremonial part, but it’s great books, the “Upnishads,” and the “Bhagavad Gita.”

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a ‘peace conference,’ you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.

No matter where I go I know where I came from.

I am getting old and the sign of old age is that I begin to philosophize and ponder over problems which should not be my concern at all.

It wasn’t until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I just always loved writing, period.

Sunrise: day’s great progenitor.