“in the state capital. But the years had also taken their toll. Some of it was just a function of my getting older, I suppose, for if you are paying attention,”

“To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart.”

“People are simply not willing to look at their problems honestly and admit that they have problems.”

“No knowledge is ever wasted.”

“Give thinking the opportunity to be your everyday meal; you get nourished by the best success nutrients. You will never be deficient!”

“Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either.”

“Life is a test and a trust, and the more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be.”

“You’ve probably heard me say that God wants to take us places that we’ve never dreamed. When you keep Him in first place, are your best each day, and take steps of faith you will see His goodness in new ways.”

“A nation which expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, expects that which never was and never will be.”

“I have learned what must be, and therefore have come to see the whole horror of what is.”

“The world is heading for another major crisis that is being called, even by the secular world, “Armageddon.”

“Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God’s greatest pleasure.”

“Faith is loved and honored by God more than any other single thing.”

“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.”

“Integrity means that we are trustworthy and dependable, and our character is above reproach.”