We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.

It seems some have chosen to ignore or have simply forgotten the big-picture vision promoted by Dr. King and his kin.

Bill Clinton strikes me as the kind of guy who goes wherever the polls lead him, rather than leading the polls.

I'm a patriot in the truest sense of the word.

My ministry's always been one of social activism. I think a responsible minister must be at some levels involved in the social order.

The right wing always mobilizes around constitutional amendments: the right to bear arms, school prayer.

James Brown became my father. He would talk to me the way a father talked to a son. He became the father I never had.

During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.

We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.

My ordination in the Church of God in Christ was at age 9, and I later became a Baptist minister, which I am today.

We're not anti-police... we're anti-police brutality.

Evangelicals catapulted George W. Bush back to the White House.

How do you make things fair?

We're not willing to give black leaders second chances because, in most cases, we're not willing to give them first chances.

It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule. That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres. We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

The dream was not to put one black family in the White house, the dream was to make everything equal in everybody's house.

I was the first candidate to come out against this war, spoke at every anti-war march.

Dr. King used Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and to passive resistance.

I was there during the first elections in South Africa. I watched them take down the apartheid flag and raise the new flag.

I do believe the Democratic party has moved far to the right. I do believe that the party has a bunch of elephants running around in donkey clothes.

I grew up in the 1950s and '60s, when it was almost a holiday when a black act would go on Ed Sullivan.

We need an amendment that gives us the right to vote protected by the federal government and the Constitution.

Dr. King's general principles are universal. But the things he confronted took place in another era.

The promise of America is one immigration policy for all who seek to enter our shores, whether they come from Mexico, Haiti or Canada, there must be one set of rules for everybody. We cannot welcome those to come and then try and act as though any culture will not be respected or treated inferior. We cannot look at the Latino community and preach "one language." No one gave them an English test before they sent them to Iraq to fight for America.

I've seen enough things to know that if you just keep on going, if you turn the corner, the sun will be shining.

If Charlton Heston can have a constitutional right carry a rifle, why can't grandma have a constitutional right to health care?

I've never done anything else in my life other than preach and be an activist. Way before I was known.

The United States has got to adopt a policy of befriending and creating allies around the world.

The United States government has the obligation to educate all young people in this country.

I was raised by a single mother who made a way for me. She used to scrub floors as a domestic worker, put a cleaning rag in her pocketbook and ride the subways in Brooklyn so I would have food on the table. But she taught me as I walked her to the subway that life is about not where you start, but where you're going. That's family values.

National Action Network, the group I founded, has affiliates or chapters in over 40 cities around the country.

I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people. I love theology and some philosophy.

I've seen too much in life to give up.

The boxing world is full of all kinds of corruption.

Who defines terrorists? Today's terrorist is tomorrow's friend.

If O.J. had been accused of killing his black wife, you would not have seen the same passion stirred up.

If you play the theatrics too much, you get in the way of your own cause.

I won vice president of my student body in high school. That doesn't mean anything.

One of the reasons I get so much joy out of my own children's childhoods is that I'm having my first childhood myself.

If you can get the proper definition of trouble, then we can find out who the real troublemakers are.

All women, regardless of her economic status or racial background, have a right to vote, and no politician or regressive law should prevent her from doing so.

As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable.

As I stood and gave the eulogy for young Michael Brown last week, I kept thinking about the fact that this child should have been in college instead of laying in a coffin.

As a kid who grew up chubby, I just marveled at the fact that I could be thin.

As a preacher who has spent significant time in churches and houses of worship all across the country, I can tell you firsthand that religious liberty and freedom are principles that can never be infringed upon.

Civilians are arrested every single day - including innocent ones - and they must wait until their day in court in order to argue their side of the story. Police officers must be subjected to the same rules.

Countries around the world have their own immigration laws and methods of dealing with a recurring theme: desperate people searching for peace from volatile parts of the world. And nations everywhere thrive and prosper from the contributions of immigrants and the children of immigrants - including right here in the U.S.

Demonstrations must be dignified and nonviolent, as the overwhelming protests in Ferguson and Staten Island have been. Do not confuse anarchists who don't want the system to work and thugs who want to exploit a situation with the majority who from day one have operated with impeccable nonviolence and clear goals.

Either we need to redefine what probable cause means and say that police are not subject to it, or we arrest officers right away just as we would with any other person accused of committing a crime. Either we write new laws or enforce existing ones; we cannot have it both ways.