"People who believe that they are white are not white. They are merely people who are trying to avoid the fact that they are human."

"The world is not a safe place. It never was."

"The price of the ticket is to be human."

"The great difficulty, and that which makes the American Negro's experience unique, is that he has been forced to make his journey alone."

"The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."