<p>Glory is the sunshine of the dead.</p>

I don't like people who like me because I'm a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt. I love America more than any other country in the world$$$ and$$$ exactly for this reason$$$ I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect$$$ that the finest principles may have to be modified$$$ or may even be pulverized by the demands of life$$$ and that one must find$$$ therefore$$$ one's own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright.

Giovanni had awakened an itch$$$ had released a gnaw in me. I realized it one afternoon$$$ when I was taking him to work via the Boulevard Montparnasse. We had bought a kilo of cherries and we were eating them as we walked along. We were both insufferably childish and high-spirited that afternoon and the spectacle we presented$$$ two grown men jostling each other on the wide sidewalk and aiming the cherry pits$$$ as though they were spitballs$$$ into each other's faces$$$ must have been outrageous.

The sea rises$$$ the light fails$$$ lovers cling to each other$$$ and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other$$$ the moment we break faith with one another$$$ the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

Money$$$ iit turned out$$$ was exactly like sex$$$ you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of otherthings if you did.

We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have a sense of what we are$$$ who we are$$$ what our goals are$$$ and what we take life to be.

There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.

A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society. One would much rather be at home among one's compatriots than be mocked and detested by them. And there is a level on which the mockery of people$$$ even their hatred$$$ is moving$$$ because it is so blind: It is terrible to watch people cling to their captivity and insist on their own destruction.

There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent$$$ accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.