“To earn more, you must learn more.”

“The great men and women of history were not great because of what they earned and owned, but rather for what they gave their lives to accomplish.”

“I’ve learned that if you want people to be impressed, you can talk about your successes; but if you want people to identify with you, it’s better to talk about your failures.”

“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”

“When you realize that people treat you according to how they see themselves rather than how you really are, you are less likely to be affected by their behavior.”

“The greatest tragedy is not death, but life without purpose.”

“The secret of the power of Christianity is not in its ethics. It is not in Christian ideas or philosophy . . .the secret of Christianity is found . . . in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“But whenever I tried to pin down this idea of self-esteem, the specific qualities we hoped to inculcate, the specific means by which we might feel good about ourselves, the conversation always seemed to follow a path of infinite regress. Did you dislike yourself because of your color or because you couldn’t read and couldn’t get a job? Or perhaps it was because you were unloved as a child—only, were you unloved because you were too dark? Or too light? Or because your mother shot heroin into her veins … and why did she do that anyway? Was the sense of emptiness you felt a consequence of kinky hair or the fact that your apartment had no heat and no decent furniture? Or was it because deep down you imagined a godless universe? Maybe one couldn’t avoid such questions on the road to personal salvation. What I doubted was that all the talk about self-esteem could serve as the centerpiece of an effective black politics. It demanded too much honest self-reckoning from people; without such honesty, it easily degenerated into vague exhortation. Perhaps with more self-esteem fewer blacks would be poor, I thought to myself, but I had no doubt that poverty did nothing for our self-esteem. Better to concentrate on the things we might all agree on. Give that black man some tangible skills and a job. Teach that black child reading and arithmetic in a safe, well-funded school. With the basics taken care of, each of us could search for our own sense of self-worth.”

“You can't move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.... The heart comes before the head.”

“If you want to build lifelong, loyal friendships, if you want to build trust, learn to protect your family members and friends even when they make mistakes.”

“Pride builds walls between people; humility builds bridges.”

“Fears are nothing more than a state of mind”

“A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.”

“Worry does no good and can impact your life in negative ways. I’m sure you have noticed how absolutely powerless you feel when you worry or you’re anxious and troubled, because worry is indeed completely useless. It is a waste of time and energy because it never changes your circumstances.”

“If a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.” —Martin Luther King Jr.”