“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”

“Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.”

“White people...have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this -- which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never -- the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.”

“We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them -- to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it. That way, you can begin to forgive yourself. That's very important. If you don't forgive yourself you'll never be able to forgive anybody else and you'll go on committing the same crimes forever.”

“Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.”

“You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back.”

“His touch could never fail to make me feel desire; yet his hot, sweet breath also made me want to vomit.”