I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment.
— Malcolm X
I just don't believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.
We who follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad feel that when you try and pass integration laws here in America, forcing white people to pretend that they are accepting black people, what you are doing is making white people act in a hypocritical way.
America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, even eaten with people who in America would have been considered 'white,' but the 'white' attitude had been removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.
America is the first country... that can actually have a bloodless revolution.
I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he's wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.
I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence.
I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.
In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.
Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.
The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
My Alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.
I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence.
If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.
Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
You can't legislate good will - that comes through education.
Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. You must be eating some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.
No, we are not anti-white. But we don't have time for the white man. The white man is on top already, the white man is the boss already... He has first-class citizenship already. So you are wasting your time talking to the white man. We are working on our own people.
What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
I have been blessed to visit the Holy City of Mecca.
You don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.
I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion.
You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.
You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.
If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary.
Nonviolence is fine as long as it works.
History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.
Stumbling is not falling.
You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.
I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.
There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent.
Integration will not bring a man back from the grave.
It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you're afraid to use an expression like that, you should get back in the cotton patch, you should get back in the alley.
Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression, because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action.
America preaches integration and practices segregation.
The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.
Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.
I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against.
Power never takes a back step only in the face of more power.
Truth is on the side of the oppressed.
The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.
Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth.
In the past, the greatest weapon the white man has had has been his ability to divide and conquer. If I take my hand and slap you, you don't even feel it. It might sting you because these digits are separated. But all I have to do to put you back in your place is bring those digits together.
You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
