Before I was a civil rights leader, I was a preacher of the Gospel. This was my first calling and it still remains my greatest commitment. You know, actually all that I do in civil rights I do because I consider it a part of my ministry.

I don't think of my life as a career. I do stuff. I respond to stuff. That's not a career - it's a life!

Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change.

God has created us to love and to be loved, and this is the beginning of prayer-to know that He loves me, that I have been created for greater things.

Those who have failed to work toward the truth have missed the purpose of living.

The stern compression of circumstances, the twinges of adversity, the spur of slights and taunts in early years, are needed to evoke that ruthless fixity of purpose and tenacious wit without which great actions are seldom accomplished.