I should have been reminded that disappointment produces despair and despair produces bitterness, and that the one thing certain about bitterness is its blindness.

The history books, which have almost completely ignored the contribution of the Negro in American history, have only served to intensify the Negroes' sense of worthlessness and to augment the anachronistic doctrine of white supremacy.

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

Discerning the signs of history, will tell us first that evil carries the seed of its own destruction. That is just as true as the rising and setting of the sun.

There are some things that are as basic and as structural in history, and if we don't know these things, we are in danger of destroying ourselves and our world.