My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

How shall I lose the sin, yet keep the sense, and love the offender, yet detest the offence?

We must make it clear that a platform of ‚I hate gay men and women‘ is not a way to become president of the United States.

My mother taught children to love to dance.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Our need for certainty in an endeavor as uncertain as raising children makes explicit ‚how-to-parent‘ strategies both seductive and dangerous.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

My friend has a baby. I’m recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

Sex without love is a meaningless experience, but as far as meaningless experiences go its pretty damn good.

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish.

Freedom is not enough.

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Here in America, we don’t give in to our fears. We don’t build up walls to keep people out.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

Part of our tradition as black women is that we are universalists. Black children, yellow children, red children, brown children, that is the black woman’s normal, day-to-day relationship. In my family alone, we are about four different colors.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

She would have thrived as a grandmother. I know how much she would have contributed to their lives, and I am sad they will miss out on that.

These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn‘ fool if they weren’t.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.

Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they’re being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I’m black. I tell them, ‚Don’t stop now. If I shot somebody you’d mention it.‘

The secret to happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible.

If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, and there are many paths to him.

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

People wonder aloud about whether I am an okay mother. That is obviously painful because it’s so important to me. It’s hard to hear that people think I’m not a capable mother and a good person, that they just think I’m nuts.

The media need superheroes in science just as in every sphere of life, but there is really a continuous range of abilities with no clear dividing line.

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

It’s possible to love a human being if you don’t know them too well.

Hatred is blind, as well as love.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

Things in themselves have no life in them. A car can’t comfort or encourage you. A house means nothing if there’s no life and love inside.

I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.

Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.

Dreams are the guiding words of the soul. Why should I henceforth not love my dreams and not make their riddling images into objects of my daily consideration?

The desire for possession is insatiable, to such a point that it can survive even love itself. To love, therefore, is to sterilize the person one loves.

At the end of the day, we started playing football because we loved it.

I’ve always felt heroic about my life… As a child, I remember little girls in the playground moaning about how boys could do more than they could. I didn’t think that was the case at all. My parents didn’t treat me as a girl.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

I’ve reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can’t do anything to change events anyway.

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

I am who I am today because of my mother.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

You can be a rank insider as well as a rank outsider.

I don’t have to ‚freedom-kiss‘ my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her.

That all men are equal is a proposition to which, at ordinary times, no sane human being has ever given his assent.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

The moment you have a child, in an instant your life is not for you, and your life is completely, 100 percent dedicated to another human being, and they will always come first. It changes you forever. It changes your perspective, and it gives you a nice purpose and focus.

What’s done can’t be undone.

Plumbers can be masters, the guy who did my patio is a master, some people are masters at raising really great children.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.