Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
[Civil right leaders]themselves in their pronouncements will tell you they need white allies, they need white help, they need white this.
I believe it's a crime for anyone who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.
They call me "a teacher, a fomenter of violence." I would say point blank, "That is a lie. I'm not for wanton violence, I'm for justice."
How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours?
If you have a dog, I must have a dog. If you have a rifle, I must have a rifle. If you have a club, I must have a club. This is equality.
You know, if ever there was a people who should know how to practice brotherhood, it is the American Negro and it is the people of Egypt.
[The man] thinks he's being condemned because of his color but actually he's being condemned because of his deeds, his conscious behavior.
We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves... One can't unite bananas with scattered leaves.
Anytime there's a fire in a negro community and it's burning out of control, you send any one of them, send Whitney Young in to put it out.
Reverend Galamison is fighting a hard battle against great opposition, and I admire a man who fights a hard battle against great opposition.
Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
... the young people are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist.
For one to control one's thoughts and feelings means one can actually control one's atmosphere and all who walk into its sphere of influence.
[People] earn extra money [in prison] selling contraband, dope, and things of that sort to the inmates, and so that really it's an exploiter.
When someone sticks a knife six inches into your back, and then pulls it out two inches and claims he's doing you a favor, don't believe him.
Any time a negro community lives under fear that its churches are going to be bombed, then they have to realize they're living in a war zone.
For me, my 'X' replaced the white slave master name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed on my parental forebears.
The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.
Most of the, or I should say many of the negro leaders actually suffer themselves from an inferiority complex even though they say they don't.
America's greatest crime against the black man was not slavery or lynching, but that he was taught to wear a mask of self-hate and self-doubt.
My suspicious nature is that there's something that [ Reverend ] Galamison, about Galamison that must have some good in it or some right in it.
It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country.
Speaking like this doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression.
I don't think you can having an opportunity to ride either on the front or the back or in the middle of someone else's bus doesn't dignify you.
A cat that's inside of your house that is angry and dissatisfied and hostile is more dangerous to you than a full-grown lion is on the outside.
I think that the problem of the American negro goes beyond the principle of any organization whether it's a religious, political, or otherwise.
It has taken us that long to get the deaf, dumb, and blind black men in the wilderness of North America to wake up and understand who they are.
If [politician] is not fulfilling his function, they then can set up the machinery to remove him from that position by whatever means necessary.
In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.
We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.
A revolution is bloody. Revolution is hostile. Revolution knows no compromise. Revolution overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way.
If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
I believe in human rights for everyone, and none of us is qualified to judge each other and that none of us should therefore have that authority.
When I was in prison, I read an article - don't be shocked when I say I was in prison. You're still in prison. That's what America means: prison.
Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil.
Nobody should teach the black man in America to turn the other cheek, unless someone is teaching the white man in America to turn the other cheek.
This is why integration will not work. It assumes that the two races, black and white, are equal and can be made to live as one. This is not true.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
I want to be remembered as someone who was sincere. Even if I made mistakes, they were made in sincerity. If I was wrong, I was wrong in sincerity.
They tell us we are all citizens, that we were born in this country. Well, a cat can have kittens in the oven, but that doesn't make them biscuits!
[People] have a fear of the, the Muslim movement and the Muslim religion because it has a tendency to make the people who accept it stick together.
Most of those Negroes have been given those jobs by the white political machine, and they serve no other function other than to, as window dressing.
The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites.
To me, political action involves making the politician who represents us know that he either produces or he is out, and he's out one way or another.
The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more.
I admire the, the stand of China and the stand of Mao Tse- tung, but I can't admire with respect the stand of, of Nehru in India. I just can't do it.
No one should advocate any peaceful suffering to black people, unless the black - white man is going to practice the same kind of peaceful suffering.
Do something for yourself, and then you will be recognized by the entire world as a man who has done for himself what others have done for themselves.
Uncle Sam is forcing integration only because he's trying to impress the people of - abroad that he's morally qualified to be the leader of the world.
I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.