I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.
I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.
It kills me to lose. If I'm a troublemaker, and I don't think that my temper makes me one, then it's because I can't stand losing. That's the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.