“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
“The world has never lacked for horrifying examples; but I do not believe that these examples are meant to be used as justification for our own crimes.”
"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite. "
"You have to decide who you are, and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you."
"I know that you didn’t own a plantation or rape my grandmother, but I wasn’t bought at auction either and you still still treat me as if I had been."