“Tone, inflection, timing, volume, pacing—everything you do with your voice communicates something and has the potential to help you connect to or disconnect from others when you speak.”

“To be black was to be the beneficiary of a great inheritance, a special destiny, glorious burdens that only we were strong enough to bear. Burdens”

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom."

“When you become discouraged, you become weak and lose the courage you need to go forward. What must you do in times of discouragement? Shake it off!

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.”

“The size of the tree you cut determines the weight with which you have to throw the axe.”

“But our God is an expert at removing worthless things out of us while retaining the valuable.”

“If you are discouraged, it is a sign of pride because it shows you trust in your own powers.”

“Enjoying life begins with enjoying yourself. You’re the one person you’re never going to get away from, so you’d better learn to like yourself. It’s impossible to love your life if you don’t love yourself.”

“When our minds are on Christ, Satan has little room to maneuver.”

“A lie cannot live.”

“I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the dart belongs in usufruct to the living.”

“There is an old Eastern fable about a traveler who is taken unawares on the steppes by a ferocious wild animal. In order to escape the beast the traveler hides in an empty well, but at the bottom of the well he sees a dragon with its jaws open, ready to devour him. The poor fellow does not dare to climb out because he is afraid of being eaten by the rapacious beast, neither does he dare drop to the bottom of the well for fear of being eaten by the dragon. So he seizes hold of a branch of a bush that is growing in the crevices of the well and clings on to it. His arms grow weak and he knows that he will soon have to resign himself to the death that awaits him on either side. Yet he still clings on, and while he is holding on to the branch he looks around and sees that two mice, one black and one white, are steadily working their way round the bush he is hanging from, gnawing away at it. Sooner or later they will eat through it and the branch will snap, and he will fall into the jaws of the dragon. The traveler sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish. But while he is still hanging there he sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the bush, stretches out his tongue and licks them. In the same way I am clinging to the tree of life, knowing full well that the dragon of death inevitably awaits me, ready to tear me to pieces, and I cannot understand how I have fallen into this torment. And Itry licking the honey that once consoled me, but it no longer gives me pleasure. The white mouse and the black mouse – day and night – are gnawing at the branch from which I am hanging. I can see the dragon clearly and the honey no longer tastes sweet. I can see only one thing; the inescapable dragon and the mice, and I cannot tear my eyes away from them. And this is no fable but the truth, the truth that is irrefutable and intelligible to everyone.

“She did worse than break the law, she broke the rules”

“The Antichrist . . . will be the embodiment of evil, and will have great power to deceive those who choose to follow him.”