I believe everyone is born into the world to do something unique and distinctive.

Every man and woman is born into the world to do something unique and something distinctive and if he or she does not do it, it will never be done.

In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks.

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream...It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.

The creation of the spiritual was no accident. It was a creation born of necessity, so that the slave might more adequately adjust himself to the conditions of the New World.

We, today, stand on the shoulders of our predecessors who have gone before us. We, as their successors, must catch the torch of freedom and liberty passed on to us by our ancestors. We cannot lose in this battle.

. . . the circumference of life cannot be rightly drawn until the center is set.

For nearly a century, the South made itself believe that Negroes and white people were really communicating. So convinced of this were the white Southerners that they almost made the nation believe that they, and only they, knew the mind of the Southern Negro.

Man is what his dreams are.

The tragedy of this life is not failure, but low aim.

Honest communication is built on truth and integrity and upon respect of the one for the other.

Whatever you do, do it so well that people looking on will feel that the task was reserved especially for you by God Himself.

Many well-meaning intelligent people have argued since the May 17, 1954, decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation in the public schools that communication between the races has broken down.

Failure isn't in not reaching your goal but in having no goal to reach.

It isn't more light we need, it isn't more truth, and it isn't more scientific data. It is more Christ, more courage, more spiritual insight to act on the light we have.

It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.