Ralph Ellison

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.

There are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.

You don't work on something for six years and be blind to the myriad of other approaches.

A free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do without servility to mobs or monarchs.