Civil Rights Activist Quotes

“You dwell in whitened castles with deep and poisoned moats and cannot hear the curses which fill your children's throats.”

“In Stamps the segregation was so complete that most Black children didn't really, absolutely know what whites looked like.”

“We are all human; therefore, nothing human can be alien to us.”

“I get up in the morning, and I'm reluctant to turn on the television.”

“I suggest that the great art belongs to all people, all the time--that indeed it is made for the people, by the people, to the people.”

“I never have written every day. When I'm writing a book, I write Monday through Friday. I always try to take Saturday and pretend to have some sanity.”

“Hope is born again in the faces of children.”

“Our stories come from our lives and from the playwright's pen, the mind of the actor, the roles we create, the artistry of life itself and the quest for peace.”

“There were people who went to sleep last night, poor and rich and white and black, but they will never wake again. And those dead folks would give anything at all for just five minutes of this weather or ten minutes of plowing. So you watch yourself about complaining. What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it.”

“If you're going to live, leave a legacy. Make a mark on the world that can't be erased.”

“We all have that possibility, that potential and that promise of seeing beyond the seeming.”

“We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”

“Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence - neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish - it is an imponderably valuable gift. Each of us has a few minutes a day or a few hours a week which we could donate to an old folks home or a children's hospital ward. The elderly whose pillows we plump or whose water pitchers we refill may or may not thank us for our gift, but the gift is upholding the foundation of the universe.”

“I like to speak on matters which matter to human beings, and almost everything matters to human beings.”

“If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”

“Precious jewel, you glow, you shine, reflecting all the good things in the world. Just look at yourself.”

“When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better.”

“If I'm going to a new country, I try to learn something about the language and the culture, so I don't just go bumbling over things.”

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

“Be the rainbow in someone else's cloud.”

“He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.”

“As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else.”

“What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,’.... And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.”

“When women take care of their health they become their own best friend.”

“Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art.”