Seeds of Revolution: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs, Volume 1

By Iam A. Freeman

A Collection of Axioms, Passages & Proverbs From
Che Guevara Bob Marley Mao Tse Tung George Jackson Noam Chomsky Patrice Lumumba Leonard Peltier Richard Pryor Bruce Lee H. Rap Brown Will Rogers Kwame Ture Plato Chief Seattle Maurice Bishop Anne Wilson Schaef Martin Luther King, Jr. Mahatma Gandhi Helen Keller Stevie Wonder Buddha Fidel Castro Ptah-Hotep Denzel Washington Socrates Karl Marx Arundhati Roy Paul Robeson Zhuge Liang Malcolm X Confucius Sekou Toure Marvin Gaye Mother Jones Hugo Chavez Kwame Nkrumah Ho Chi Minh Amilcar Cabral Eugene V. Debs Jose Mart James Loewen Marcus Garvey Augusto Sandino Aesops Fables Harriet Tubman Chief Joseph Frantz Fanon Mark Twain Simon Bolivar Thomas Sankara Lao Tzu Miriam Makeba Howard Zinn Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Subcomandante Marcos Mumia Abu-Jamal Kim Il Sung Sitting Bull W.E.B. Du Bois Red Cloud Paramahansa Yogananda David Walker Assata Shakur Albert Camus Steve Biko KRS-One George Santayana Carter G. Woodson Black Hawk Muhammad Ali John Lennon Chuck D John H. Clarke I Ching Jean-Jacques Rousseau Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Victor Hugo Salvador Allende Dick Gregory Emiliano Zapata Oprah Winfrey Upton Sinclair Bill Cosby Cesar Chavez John Brown Various International Proverbs Jack London Henry David Thoreau Frederick Douglass Emma Goldman Michael Jordan George Orwell Rage Against The Machine Albert Einstein Kareem Abdul-Jabar Voltaire Thomas Carlyle Lauryn Hill Sojourner Truth Depak Chopra The Bible Prophet Muhammad Rumi V.I. Lenin Meister Eckhart Fred Hampton Michael Moore The Tao George Carlin Ralph Nader Rosa Parks Margaret Storm Jameson Louis Farrakhan Nina Simone Yuri Kochiyama Woody Guthrie Bertrand Russell Rosa Luxemburg Willie Nelson Joan Baez Bhagavad-Gita Gen. Smedley Butler Fyodor Dostoyevsky Duke Ellington Ralph Waldo Emerson Jawanza Kunjufu Erich Fromm Jimi Hendrix Big Elk Fannie Lou Hamer Immanuel Kant Ziggy Marley Poor Richards Almanac Public Enemy Bill Russell Kenneth Stampp Spock Peter Tosh Nat Turner Desmond Tutu Sun Tzu Booker T. Washington Saul Alinsky The Zulu Declaration Brother

A Collection of Axioms, Passages & Proverbs On
God Faith Endurance Agitate Organize Unity Commun-all-ism Comrades Enemies No (Know) Sellouts United Snakes of America The Rich & Greedy Warmongers The Slick, Selfish & Wicked The Humble, Righteous & Just Resistance Independence Criticism/Self-Criticism Time Tell-Lie-Vision Poverty/Class Struggle Poli-tricks The (In) Just-Us System Women Children Family Pride Death Culture History Slavery The African Holocaust The Question of Race Religion Money Work Education Knowledge & Wisdom Political Power Socialism Revolution Free the Land Afreeka God

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781440185304

Iam A. Freeman

IAM A. FREEMAN was born Todd A. McCain in 1965 to the parents of Ralph and Laura McCain. He is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seeds of Revolution is the result of eighteen years of work compiling quotations, passages, and proverbs on the world-wide humanitarian experience. He is married to Terri L. McCain. They have one daughter and two sons, Sankara, Taaj-Yera and Kalonji. This is his first book.

Book preview

Seeds of Revolution

A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs Volume 1

Copyright © 2009, 2014 by Todd McCain.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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iUniverse rev. date: 03/05/2015

Table of Contents

Symbol Chart

Editor’s Notes

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Chapter 1:   God

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Chapter 2:   Faith

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Chapter 3:   Endurance

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Chapter 4:   Agitate … Organize!

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Chapter 5:   Unity

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Chapter 6:   Commun-all-ism

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Chapter 7:   Comrades

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Chapter 8:   Enemies

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Chapter 9:   No (Know) Sellouts

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Chapter 10:   The United Snakes of America, Capitalism, Imperialism & Neocolonialism

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Chapter 11:   The Rich & Greedy

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Chapter 12:   Warmongers

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Chapter 13:   The Slick, Selfish & Wicked

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Chapter 14:   The Humble, Righteous & Just

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Chapter 15:   Resistance

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Chapter 16:   Independence

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Chapter 17:   Criticism/Self-Criticism

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Chapter 18:   Time

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Chapter 19:   Mental-cide

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Chapter 20:   The Media/Greed-ia, Tell-Lie-Vision & (O)Press

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Chapter 21:   Poverty … Class Struggle

Bibliography

To God, The Creator,

my family,

the ancestors,

unborn babes,

and uncreated worlds …

Assante Sanna … Many Thanks

Seeds of Revolution

seed(s): a beginning source: ORIGIN.

of: characterized or identified by, with reference to: ABOUT, produced by, centering on: directed toward.

revolution: an abrupt political overthrow or seizure of power brought about from within a given system.

~Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary 1984~

A beginning source directed toward an abrupt political overthrow or seizure of power brought about from within a given system.

~Iam A. Freeman~

Symbol Chart

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Gye Nyame

"Omnipotence of God"

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Nyame Biribi Wo Soro

"Hope"

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Hye Wonhye

"Imperishability & Endurance"

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Nkyimu

"Skillfulness & Precision"

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Akoma Ntoso

"Understanding & Agreement"

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Odo Nnyew Fie Kwan

"Power of Love"

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Ese Ne Tek Rema

"Friendship & Interdependence"

66192.png

Tamfo Bebre

"The Enemy Will Stew in His Own Juice"

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Kintinan

"Arrogance, Extravagance"

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Sepow

"The Executioner’s Knife"

66216.png

Sebek

"Cunning, Treachery & Deceit"

66225.png

Aya

"Defiance Against Difficulties"

66233.png

Obi Nka Bi

"Warning Against Backbiting"

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Dwenini Mmen

"Strength of Humility"

66252.png

Akoben

"Summon to a Collective Action and Call for Arms"

66260.png

Mframadan

"Wind-Resistant House"

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Hwemudua

"Examination"

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Mmmere Dane

"Time Changes"

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Bi Nka Bi

"Caution Against Provocation and Strife"

66292.png

Kramo Bone Amma Yeanhu Kramo Pa

"Warning Against Deception and Hypocrisy"

66300.png

Fafanto (The Butterfly)

"The Butterfly may be Fluttering Around a Pot of Palm Wine,

But will not Drink it, for it Cannot Afford to Buy."

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Tikorommpam

"One Head Does Not Constitute a Council"

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Epa

"You are the Subject of He Whose Handcuffs are Around Your Hands"

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Duafe

"Good Feminine Qualities"

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Akoko Nan

"Protectiveness and Parental Duties"

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Ebanui

"Safety & Love"

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Nsaa

Excellence, Genuineness & Authenticity

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Owuo Atwedee

"The Transitory Nature of Existence in this World and to Live a Good Life to be a Worthy Soul in the Afterlife"

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Sankofa

"Learning from the Past"

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Sankofa

"Learning from History"

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The African Slave Trade

"Am I Not a Man and a Brother?"

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Nkyinkyim

"Ability to Withstand Hardships"

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Nkonsonkonson

"Unity of Human Relations"

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Sunsum

"Spiritual Purity & Sanctity of Soul"

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Money

"The Love of Money is the Root of All Evil"

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Sesa Woruban

"Transformation"

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Dame Dame

"Intelligence & Ingenuity"

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Mate Masie

"Knowledge & Wisdom"

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Owo Foro Adobe

"Steadfastness, Prudence & Diligence"

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Lotus

"Birth & Dawn … A New Beginning and an Old End"

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Boa Me Na Me Mmoa Wo

"Help Me and Let Me Help You"

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Asase Ye Duru

The Divinity of Mother Earth

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Bese Saka

"Affluence, Power, Abundance, Plenty, Togetherness and Unity"

Image90.tif

Pictured from left to right: Taaj-Yera, Terri, Iam A. Freeman, Kalonji, & Sankara

Photo by Beautybydivine.com

Editor’s Notes

In order to express the purpose of this book, i must begin with my personal roots and the significant events that helped mold and shape me first as a human being and second as the editor of this book of axioms, passages, and proverbs. In case you are wondering why the word I is written lowercased instead of capitalized, let me assure you that i am not grammatically incompetent, and i fully understand how to write the word i. The lowercased spelling of the word i is a small attempt to become less selfish, less self-centered and more egalitarian and communal. Using a small i conveys such meaning as: i am we, i am no greater than we, and i will never know more than all of us. With that being said, i will humbly attempt to explain the purpose of this book.

i was born in 1965 to Ralph & Laura McCain. i was born during the height of the Civil Rights Era and the beginning of the Black Power Movement in America. i was in my Mother’s womb when Malcolm X was assassinated and just out of diapers when Martin Luther King, Jr. was martyred. Like all human beings, my early education helped lay the foundation for my belief system, and this book has been written upon it. i attended a Catholic School named St. Monica. It was located in the heart of the midtown area of industrialized Gary, IN, a steel/steal/kill/mill town. It was a town where the major steel industry (U.S. Steel) stole from the laborers and economy while killing the environment. Even during my childhood, Gary, IN was considered a ‘chocolate city.’ The school i attended, St. Monica, was named after an African woman who lived over 1600 years ago. St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine. The name and origin of St. Monica were significant to the overall spirit of the school. We did not have the finest educational edifices or state-of-the-art educational facilities. There were no athletic complexes or even hot lunches, for that matter. Our classes were held in either an old, wood-framed building or portable trailers. We did not have swing sets, monkey bars, see-saws, sandlots, or sliding boards. We had a parking lot to play in and lots of imagination. Another thing we did have at school was soul. And when i say soul, i mean a spirit that no legislator can legislate, architect can build, or purchase order can buy. St. Monica’s student body was ninety-nine percent of African descent. Most of the children were the first-generation transplants of parents who moved from southern states like Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama to the north to work in the steel/steal/kill mills. The spiritual and cultural foundation of St. Monica was phenomenal. We were African-centered well before the term was ever coined. At St. Monica, instead of giving honor roll certificates or ribbons, we were given ‘Black Excellence’ pins to wear on our uniformed shirts and dresses. At St. Monica, we were taught our history and how vital it was to celebrate the legacy of our African roots. On Fridays, the students at St. Monica would wear African dashikis to church and sing to the heavens at Catholic Mass while jamming with students on stage that played bongos, percussive sticks, acoustic guitars, maracas and tambourines. We sang spiritual songs from the tops of our lungs and sounded like Gary’s own Jackson 5 x 500. In every classroom, there were depictions of Jesus and the Saints, and they had skin complexions like toasted ‘brass’ and hair like ‘wool.’ In the late Sixties and Seventies, St. Monica celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. on every January 15th. This school celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. long before the United States Government (the same government implicated in the surveillance and assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) ever did. Our school even gave us a day off from school … long before the government ever legislated or any president signed it into law. On the Friday before every January 15th, we would have a special mass in honor of Dr. King. i remember that, during one particular MLK birthday celebration when i was around 10 years old, i was listening and participating in the special mass and a thought hit me like a blinding light and revelation. i remember being awed by the feeling of adoration for Martin Luther King, Jr. because he died for me, and he didn’t even know my name. i fell in love with those who took the road of martyrdom, and i distinctly remember saying to myself, i want to live and die like Martin Luther King, Jr. Coupled with reading, writing, and arithmetic; the students at St. Monica were taught respect, given warmth, and garnered affection. My experience from Kindergarten to the sixth grade in being nurtured, loved, and cultured while being academically trained lit a fire in me that has yet to be extinguished and now gives a basis and foundation for writing this book.

After graduating from high school, i decided to give Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA a try. My choice of higher education couldn’t have been better nor could it have been sweeter. It is really true that the Blacker the College, the Sweeter the Knowledge. Southern University, like St. Monica, was nurturing and enlightening. i found that it was truly refreshing to go to college in a place i had never been before. The different cultural experiences of Louisiana and most of all, the variety of people i met from not only Louisiana but all over the country and the world forever changed my outlook on life. At Southern University, i was bitten by the bug of political organization, and it gave me the fever of agitating and organizing. i became involved for the first time in Student Government, organizing, meeting, planning, and speaking in front of microphones as well as on top of stumps and soapboxes. i saw the power of college students and how the thinking habits acquired in college help shape your ideals in man and womanhood. While attending Southern University, my cousin played an audio tape of Malcolm X for me. Unfortunately, i must confess, i knew who Malcolm X was yet had never heard any of his speeches or read any of his writings—and this was 1986, 21 years after his physical assassination. When i heard Malcolm’s House Negro … Field Negro speech for the very first time, it turned a light on inside my dimmed political and cultural soul. Malcolm’s words from the grave taught me the importance of connecting to one’s motherland. Malcolm’s words from the grave taught me how; throughout history, the image of Africa was hijacked and hi-jinxed. His words illustrated how the negative image of Africa produced a negative effect in the minds of people of African descent all over the world, and especially in the minds of those who were the descendants of enslaved Africans in America. From the grave, Malcolm X taught me the importance of agitating and organizing not only in the U.S. but internationally. After this fuse was lit, i decided to join an organization, the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party. This organization instilled in me the concept of Pan-Africanism, an ideology that looked toward a united Africa, a United States of Africa if you will, as the solution for African people on the continent and also abroad. Pan-Africanism embraced the philosophies of, to name a few, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, W.E.B. Du Bois and others who understood the primacy of Africa. The concept of Pan-Africanism embraced the economic system of socialism, the concept that labor, land, and this planet’s resources should be owned by the people—not some people or a few people, the land and its resources belong to all the people. It begs the question: can someone own the sky, clouds, rain, rainbow, wind, sun, moon or morning dew? Of course not! If an individual cannot own what is part of or above the sky, why should the multinational corporations and cartels seize and control what is below the sky? Therefore, the economic principles of socialism grasp the concept that the copper, oil, utilities, uranium, diamonds, rubber tree sap, mangoes, peanuts, or nutmeg does not belong to one or a few people, multinational corporations or cartels. The fruits of the Earth belong to all of its inhabitants. In the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party, there were work-study circles where student members would collectively study certain books written by revolutionary thinkers and organizers. Through work-study, the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, V.I. Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, Rosa Luxemburg, and Mao Tse-tung were given life and collective meaning. i became exposed to the philosophies and opinions of those people that i had often been discouraged from studying and learning about by the powers that be. Through reading and studying collectively, i became politically and culturally conscious, where the sleeping human being in me began to open his eyes and arise from a political and cultural slumber. i began to understand that the truth is simply the truth in all languages, cultures and corners of the world. i began to realize the fact that most people of the world, regardless of language, culture, or skin complexion, had common problems. i also began to fully understand that most people of the world, regardless of language, culture, or skin complexion had common solutions. International organization and solidarity of the laborers and students became a tenet in my political spirit. i fully understood that people from A-Z, literally from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, had expressed a common statement among their various cultures and languages: We deserve to be and will be free!

In 1994, i became a ‘family man.’ i became the husband of Terri McCain. We are the parents of three children, one daughter, Sankara (means ‘determination’), and two sons, Taaj-Yera (means ‘crown of a warrior’) and Kalonji (means ‘man of victory’). i am convinced that God, often in bright, blinking, neon lights, places the handwriting on the wall. The very first day i met my wife, a voice inside of me said, One day that woman will be your wife, … and as fate would have it, two years later, we were married. Being a husband and father has instilled in me the importance of my biological family also being my ideological family. We have tried to instill in our children ‘to be as wise as serpents and humble as doves.’ We have instilled in our children that the true measure of their worth is how they make others stronger. Being a husband and a father has been the most treasured and essential role that i have had to fulfill. i feel truly honored for others to depend on me as i depend on them. From the conception and the gestation of this book, it has been my family’s encouragement and patience that have fueled me in birthing this collection of axioms, passages, and proverbs.

In 1996, an idea was instilled in me to capture various quotes from many historical individuals. Originally, i was going to compile a small, pocket-sized quotation book, of the kind that is sold at bookstore cash registers in point-of-purchase displays. This kind of small quotation book is a little bigger than a large book of matches. Originally, the book of quotations and proverbs was going to be about 40 pages. After i began to read and research various books, the small novelty book of quotations grew and now, 18 years later, it has grown into a two-volume 1,400 page book. In a three-year span, i read and researched over 120 books, quotation websites, and articles from every ethnic source possible. i would read five and six books simultaneously. i read and quoted the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Stephen Biko, and Patrice Lumumba of Africa. i read and quoted the likes of Bruce Lee, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse-tung and Confucius from Asia, and also quoted, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joan of Arc, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Lenin and Marx of Europe. The quotes of Latin American and Caribbean thinkers Fidel Castro, Augusto Sandino, Simón Bolívar, Maurice Bishop, Bob Marley and Che Guevara are also included in this collection. i could not leave out the quotation jewels of thought from this country by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Assata Shakur, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Pryor and Malcolm X along with Eugene V. Debs, Will Rogers, Mother Jones, and Henry David Thoreau. i also began to quote various spiritual icons like Jesus the Christ, Prophet Muhammad, Ptah-Hotep, Aesop, and Buddha, as well as the Bhagavad-Gita and Hindu Proverbs, to name a few. You see, i tried to exhaust every source of humanity for enlightenment and truth. In editing and composing these passages from various individuals during this 18-year journey of research and editing, i have compiled a book that blends the truth from various individuals’ quotations and various international proverbs. It was truly amazing that what Ptah-Hotep said 5,000 years ago coincided with what Aesop and Confucius said in different parts of the world about 2,500 years ago. What Confucius and Aesop said some 2,500 years ago coincided with what Jesus said 2,000 years ago. What Jesus said 2,000 years ago coincided with what Harriet Tubman said over one hundred years ago. What Harriet Tubman said over one hundred years ago coincided with what Malcolm X, Ho Chi Minh and Bruce Lee said during the last 50 years. And most importantly, what was said years ago is what today’s and tomorrow’s generations will believe 24 hours from now! In researching various people from various times and places, i understood that truth is truth. Truth dissolves geographical borders. Truth defies time, matter and space. During my journey of research, it was amazing to see how proverbs from Africa and China coincided with proverbs from Ireland or Chile. Regardless of longitude or latitude, people from all over the world had the same attitude towards life. These various international proverbs would repeat the same sentiments, although their origin was miles, hemispheres or time zones apart. Proverbs from all over the world would gleam like an individual facet in a diamond where wisdom and knowledge, regardless of geographical positions on the globe, contributed to the intellectual glamour of a brilliant planet Earth.

In the last 18 years, i have enjoyed the journey of editing and composing these axioms, passages, and proverbs. The title, Seeds of Revolution, signifies the fact that each of the axioms, passages, and proverbs represents a seed that can be planted within one’s spirit. Seeds of Revolution mean that each quote or proverb, like a seed, awaits the fertile garden in which it will be sewn. Each proverb and quotation is designed to take root in the reader and, hopefully, inspire and encourage positive, fundamental change in the world in which we live. These quotations and proverbs were designed to inspire revolutionary thought and change. When i say revolutionary thought and change, it is meant that these words can teach those who starve how to grow their own crops. When i say revolutionary thought and change, what is meant is the empowering of powerless people. When i say revolutionary thought and change, this means giving sight to the politically and economically blind. Revolutionary thought and change mean we begin to understand that the world is an abundant buffet, and every human being is entitled to eat and drink FOR FREE. We must create a world wherein every human being is afforded everything needed to contribute to everyone’s society. We all do better when we all do better! On that note, i humbly offer you Seeds of Revolution, Vols. 1 & 2: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs.

~Iam A. Freeman~

Editor

World Harvest Press

2014

Chapter 1

God

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Gye Nyame

Omnipotence of God

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Quotations

on

God

In the beginning, God … in the end, God.

~Desmond Tutu~

Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

~Helen Keller~

God is both Father and Mother, the Father of fathers and the Mother of mothers. He begets but was never begotten, produces but was never produced; He begat Himself and produced himself.

~Temt Tchaas~

God is the whole.

~Marcus Garvey~

Setting aside all noble deeds, just surrender completely to the will of God.

~Bhagavad-Gita~

Behold—the only thing greater than yourself.

~Kunta Kinte’s Father~

Man can’t do without God. Just like you’re thirsty, you have to drink water. You just can’t do without God.

~Bob Marley~

The truth is that God is the force.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

Great Spirit, once more behold me on earth and lean to hear my feeble voice. You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you—the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live.

You have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road, and the road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things.

~Black Hawk~

The noblest employment of the mind is the study of its Creator.

~Temt Tchaas~

Wonder is the basis of worship.

~Thomas Carlyle~

It is soul-soothing, and mind-easing, and spirit-strengthening to know that the final voice is in God.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

God is seated in the hearts of all.

~Bhagavad-Gita~

God always managed to do something spectacular at the last minute. Kind of like Superman.

~Richard Pryor~

What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.

~Oprah Winfrey~

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

~Matthew 22:37-40~

The worth of the individual does not lie in the measure of his intellect, his racial origin, or his social position. Human worth lies in relatedness to God.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

When I admire the wonder of a sunset of the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.

~Thomas Carlyle~

God … was in the food they ate, in the water they drank, in the air they breathed, in the earth they trod on and died on, in the words they spoke, in the sleep they slept and the dreams they dreamt, in the everywhere and the everything.

~Albert Wendt~

The sum total of all that lives is God. We may not be God but we are of God even as a little drop of water is of the ocean.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

~Socrates~

Every person is a God in embryo. Its only desire is to be born.

~Deepak Chopra~

Work, apart from devotion or love of God, is helpless and cannot stand alone.

~Ramakrishna~

Whenever, in the course of the daily hunt, the hunter comes upon a scene that is strikingly beautiful, or sublime—a black thundercloud with the rainbow’s glowing arch above the mountain, a white waterfall in the heart of a green gorge, a vast prairie tinged with the blood-red of the sunset—he pauses for an instant in the attitude of worship. He sees no need for setting apart one day in seven as a holy day, because to him all days are God’s days.

~Charles Alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa)~

We did not believe that religion could be featured as a separate part of our existence on earth. It was manifest in our daily lives. We thanked God through our ancestors before we drank beer, married, worked etc. We would obviously find it artificial to create special occasions for worship. Neither did we see it logical to have a particular building in which all worship would be conducted. We believed that God was always in communication with us and therefore merited attention everywhere and anywhere.

~Stephen Biko~

The old cathedrals are good, but the great blue dome that hangs over everything is better.

~Thomas Carlyle~

Religion or spirituality (the more correct term) was part of the totality of our life. It wasn’t a Sunday occurrence; it was a total occurrence. It determined much of our life.

~John Henrik Clarke~

Look for God in wind, water, sun, moon, upon the land and in the sky. God is everywhere.

~Brother~

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

~Buddha~

God is love …

~1 John 4:8~

Love is God.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

God is love. It’s the most important thing we have on earth!

~Lauryn Hill~

You may call God love, you may call God goodness. But the best name for God is compassion.

~Meister Eckhart~

The Elders teach us that the Creator is a loving and forgiving God. He loves us during our good days and he loves us during our bad days. He doesn’t know how to do anything but love. If I really want to find out about the true God, I only need to ask in prayer. There is one thing that God cannot do and that is refuse help to one of his children who asks.

~Don Coyhis~

The life that you have is God’s gift to you … what you do with your life is the gift you give to God.

~Seen on a Restaurant Wall~

God is as dependent on you as you are on him.

~Mahalia Jackson~

It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.

~Cesar Chavez~

Life and Jah are one in the same. Jah is the gift of existence. I am in some way eternal, I will never be duplicated. The singularity of every man and woman is Jah’s gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. The process of what that struggle becomes, in time, the Truth.

~Bob Marley~

God is like the sun. When the sun shines, it shines for everyone. God is for everyone.

~Ziggy Marley~

Where God has sown it shall flourish.

~Romanian Proverb~

Where God is, there is life, action, vitality, progress.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

The laws of God are the first thing the seeker will find on the way to the truth.

~Temt Tchaas~

We all depend on God who gives us every breath we take and keeps us standing upright.

~African Proverb~

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being made and let God be God in you.

~Meister Eckhart~

Through selfless work, love of God grows in the heart. Then through his grace one realize him in course of time. God can be seen. One can talk to him as I am talking to you.

~Ramakrishna~

The power of God is with you at all times; through the activities of mind, senses, breathing, and emotions; and is constantly doing all the work using you as a mere instrument.

~Bhagavad-Gita~

Allah always gives you signs, when you are with Him, that He is with you.

~Malcolm X~

If you carry God in your heart, God will carry you in His hands.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

Sometimes it’s the little, ordinary miracles that give you the strength to carry on.

~Leonard Peltier~

God Knoweth they who acknowledge Him, God rewardeth them who serve Him and protects them who follow Him; they who Set Him in their Heart.

~Temt Tchaas~

God is always closer when you need Him more.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

My soul looked back and wondered how I got over it all.

~African Spiritual~

All God wants of man is a peaceful heart.

~Meister Eckhart~

Humility is probably the greatest power that one can study, to understand that you didn’t create anything. God created it all.

~Melba Moore~

If God had’na given me a song to sing, I wouldn’t have a song to sing. The song comes from God, all the time.

~Bob Marley~

God said, All right, I’m gonna show you. I made you what you are. God takes care of me. I’m just the one who delivers the message.

~Lauryn Hill~

In waking, eating, working, dreaming, sleeping,

Serving, meditating, chanting, divinely loving,

My soul constantly hums, unheard by any;

God, God, God!

~Paramahansa Yogananda~

God is not dead. People are dead—dead to an awareness of God and His wondrous love for all mankind.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.

~Erich Fromm~

Thou art the living force in part,

The Spirit of the mighty I;

The God of Heaven and your heart

Is Spirit that can never die.

~Marcus Garvey~

You cannot escape God. You will meet God in foreign lands and nations.

~African Proverb~

I cannot see everything, but nothing escapes God.

~Toussaint L’Ouverture~

God can never be deceived.

~African Proverb~

Two young Fellows slipt into a Cook’s Shop, and while the Master was busy at his Work, one of them stole a piece of Flesh, and convey’d it to the other. The Master miss’d it immediately, and challeng’d them with the Theft; He that took it, swore he had none on’t: and he that had it, swore as desperately that he did not take it. The Cook reflecting upon the Conceit: Well, my Masters (says he) these Frauds and Fallacies may pass upon Men, but there’s an Eye above that sees through them.

The Moral: There’s no putting of Tricks upon an all-seeing Power; as if he that made our Hearts, and knows every Nook and Corner of them, could not see through the childish Fallacy of a double Meaning.

~Aesop~

Only God knows our secrets.

~African Proverb~

Sometimes we think we can get away with things in this life. Our complex culture tacitly condemns dishonesty, theft, and personal and corporate immorality. Yet complexity often breeds dishonesty, making it somehow okay, at some level. For us to get away with more. But do we ever really get away with anything?

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

It sometimes seems we are deserted by earth and Heaven—yet we must still think, speak and work, and trust in the power of a merciful God for final deliverance.

~Frederick Douglass~

God is bigger than all your problems.

~Mexican Proverb~

The word is the verb, and the verb is God.

~Victor Hugo~

When one is in trouble, one always remembers God.

~African Proverb~

People in trouble remember Allah.

~African Proverb~

When it becomes urgent, one kisses the feet of Buddha.

~Chinese Proverb~

Remember God in prosperity, and He will remember you in adversity.

~Prophet Muhammad~

Only God has kept the Negro sane.

~Fannie Lou Hamer~

We neglect God in greater Matters, and petition him for Trifles, nay, and take pet at last if we cannot have our Askings.

~Aesop~

Once one who recovers from their sickness, they forget about God.

~African Proverb~

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

~Kahlil Gibran~

The better we do, the more we have, the more successful we are, and the more important we are, the more time and energy we should devote to the Creator. Imagine what this means! In Western culture, just the opposite seems to be true. The more important we get, the less time we have for the Creator … Making time for the Creator in our daily lives is not a luxury. It is a necessity.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

Our best blessings are often the least appreciated.

~Aesop~

Breathe without asking.

~Auden~

We always pray when we are in trouble. We must always ascertain that God is not just our spare tire but most of all our steering wheel.

~Brother~

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.

~Meister Eckhart~

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

~Socrates~

We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible.

~Albert Camus~

If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies in yourself.

~Native American Proverb~

Because one doesn’t like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God.

~Victor Hugo~

God is in all men, but all men are not in God; that is why we suffer.

~Ramakrishna~

As you got up this morning,

I watched you, and hoped you would talk to me,

even if it was just a few words,

asking my opinion or thanking me

for something good that happened

in your life yesterday.

But I noticed you were too busy,

trying to find the right outfit to wear.

When you ran around the house getting ready,

I knew there would be a few minutes

for you to stop and say hello, but you were too busy.

At one point you had to wait,

fifteen minutes with nothing to do

except sit in a chair.

Then I saw you spring to your feet.

I thought you wanted to talk to me

but you ran to the phone and called a friend

to get the latest gossip instead.

I watched patiently all day long.

With all your activities

I guess you were too busy to say

anything to me.

I noticed that before lunch you looked around,

maybe you felt embarrassed to talk to me,

that is why you didn’t bow your head.

You glanced three or four tables over

and you noticed some of your friends

talking to me briefly before they ate, but you didn’t.

That’s okay.

There is still more time left, and I hope that you will talk to me yet.

You went home and it seems as if

you had lots of things to do.

After a few of them were done,

you turned on the TV.

I don’t know if you like TV or not,

just about anything goes there, and you spend a lot of time

each day in front of it not thinking about anything,

just enjoying the show.

I waited patiently again

as you watched the TV and ate your meal,

but again you didn’t talk to me.

Bedtime I guess you felt too tired.

After you said goodnight to your family

you plopped into bed and fell asleep in no time.

That’s okay because you may not realize

that I am always there for you.

I’ve got patience, more than you will ever know.

I even want to teach you how

to be patient with others as well.

I love you so much I wait every day for a nod,

prayer or thought or a thankful part of your heart

It is hard to have a one-sided conversation.

Well, you are getting up again and once again I will wait with nothing but love for you

Hoping that you will give me some time

Have a nice day.

~GOD~

Native American Elders teach of a God that is more in keeping with my experience. I am the one who gets me in trouble, and it is usually when I move away from what I know to be the true ways of the Creator. It has never been that God has left me. I am always the one who leaves. And, when I ask, return is always possible.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

The man with one eye doesn’t thank God unless he sees the man that is blind.

~African Proverb~

There are no Atheists in a foxhole.

~William T. Cummings~

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live my life as if there isn’t and die to find out there is.

~Albert Camus~

You don’t ask God to give you things; you depend on God for inner theme.

~Bruce Lee~

I asked for wisdom …

And God gave me problems to solve.

I asked for prosperity …

And God gave me brains and the strength to work.

I asked for courage …

And God gave me danger to overcome.

I asked for love …

And God gave me troubled people to help.

I asked for favors …

And God gave me opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted.

I received everything I needed.

My Prayer has been answered.

~Anonymous~

It is better to teach knowledge one hour in the night than to pray all night.

~Prophet Muhammad~

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.

~Frederick Douglass~

When you pray, you must move your feet.

~African Proverb~

The real weakness of the idea that God will do everything is its false conception of both God and man. It makes God so absolutely sovereign that man is absolute helpless …

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

God never appears to you in person but always in action.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

The knower and the known are one … God and I, we are one in knowledge.

~Meister Eckhart~

Act, and God will act.

~Joan of Arc~

Great thoughts and a pure heart, that is what we should ask from God.

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

We must give up that silly idea of folding our hands and waiting upon God to do everything for us. If God intended that, He would not have given us a mind; He would not have given us intelligence; He would not have given us His soul; He would not have placed us here in the midst of creation, and surrounded us with all the beautiful things of nature. Whatsoever you want in life you must make up your mind to do it for yourself and accomplish it for yourself; whether it is rearing a home, expanding an Empire, if you want to do it, you must do it for yourself and then God will bless the effort because He will realise that you are using your intelligence for the best.

~Marcus Garvey~

You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.

~Fannie Lou Hamer~

It is in vain to expect our prayers to be heard, if we do not strive as well as pray.

~Aesop~

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.

~Napoleon Bonaparte~

And the day of our redemption from abject wretchedness draweth near, when we shall be enabled, in the most extended sense of the word, to stretch forth our hands to the Lord our God, but there must be a willingness on our part, for God to do these things for us, for we may be assured that he will not take us by the hairs of our head against our will and desire, and drag us from our very, mean, low and abject conditions.

~David Walker~

God made the seas, we make the ships; God made the winds, we make sails; God made the seas calm, we make oars.

~African Proverb~

The gods help them that help themselves.

~Aesop~

Prayer, among sane people, has never superseded practical efforts to secure the desired end.

~George Santayana~

If something didn’t go right, they’d just lay back and say, Well, it’ll get better and things will improve. Ain’t nothing I can do about it; it’ll better itself. The Lawd will fix it.

~H. Rap Brown~

We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Ask, and it shall be given you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

~Matthew 7:7~

For a nation with this start in culture and efficiency to sit down and await the salvation of a white God is idiotic.

~W.E.B. Du Bois~

There is a God and we believe in Him. He is not a person nor a physical being. He is a spirit and He is universal intelligence. Never deny that there is a God. God being universal intelligence created the universe out of that intelligence. It is intelligence that creates. Man is a part of the creation of universal intelligence and man was created in the image and likeness of God, but man’s intelligence is only a unitary particle of God’s universal intelligence.

~Marcus Garvey~

God will crown our efforts with success.

~Augusto Sandino~

If we will take care of today, God will take care of the tomorrow.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

God helps those who help themselves.

~Aeschylus~

Just because men do not like the cold, Heaven will not stop the winter.

~Chinese Proverb~

Pray to God for a good harvest, but keep on hoeing.

~Proverb of Slovenia~

Pray to God, but keep on rowing to the shore.

~Russian Proverb~

Virtue consists of action.

~Proverb of Holland~

I never ask God to give me anything; I only ask him to put me where things are.

~Mexican Proverb~

I do not believe that God puts any handicap upon any people for the exercising of their intelligence and the use of their brains.

~Marcus Garvey~

Put your trust in God, but tie your camel.

~Prophet Muhammad~

If you fall into a pit, Providence is under no obligation to come and look for you.

~Iranian Proverb~

Let the people know that in them and in themselves only is the power to rise. That God does not go out of his way to give people positions or jobs or to give them good conditions such as they desire; they must do that for themselves out of the fullness of nature that God has created for everybody. God does not build cities nor towns nor nations, nor homes, nor factories, men and people do that and all those who want them must work for themselves and pray to God to give them strength to do it… God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own creative genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.

~Marcus Garvey~

Help yourself and God will help you.

~Proverb of Holland~

God gives us milk but no jug.

~German Proverb~

God gives all birds their food but does not drop it into their nests.

~Proverb of Denmark~

I pray God to grant me the wisdom, strength and endurance to do my duty as it should be done.

~Kwame Nkrumah~

If you ask God for wisdom and understanding, you have everything else because with wisdom and understanding you will be able to take care of yourself. Therefore, never pray to God for particular things, for individual things.

~Marcus Garvey~

God give us vision and thought. Amen.

~W.E.B. Du Bois~

And when we pray, what shall we pray for?

A love that can never be fathomed.

A life that never dies.

A righteousness that never is tarnished.

A rest that is never disturbed.

A joy that is never diminished.

A hope that is never disappointed.

A glory that is never clouded.

A light that is never darkened.

A happiness that is never interrupted.

A strength that is never enfeebled.

A beauty that is never scarred.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

We need as many ways as possible to live the spirit of spirituality.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.

~Ramakrishna~

All religions claim or almost claim a monopoly on truth about the nature of the supreme being and about the way to identify with his original intention about men.

~Stephen Biko~

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams—they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do—they all contain truths.

~Muhammad Ali~

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

~John Lennon~

Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

Every day and every night, I dance with Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammad & all personal Gods: Krishna, Shiva & Buddha. You are welcome too!

~Santosh Kalware~

Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal … In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn, he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace; even affectionately.

Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh—not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.

~Mark Twain~

According to the World Christian Encyclopedia (year 2000 version), global Christianity had 33,820 denominations …

~WikiAnswers.com~

Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?

~Spotted Tail~

I believe in one God. If there was a whole lot of them, there would be a confusing religion … Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, or some of the others. All of them were prophets, they came from one God, they had one doctrine, and that doctrine was designed to give clarification of humanity, so that all of humanity would see that it was one and have some kind of brotherhood that would be practiced here on this earth. I believe in that.

~Malcolm X~

God is neither Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian nor Episcopalian. God transcends our denominations.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Because whether he was a Methodist or a Baptist or an atheist or an agnostic, he caught the same hell.

~Malcolm X~

It is in your hands to make life miserable or happy. No religion, spiritual leaders or knowledge will ever make you fully satisfied.

~Santosh Kalware~

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

~Kahlil Gibran~

The way my religion is, they teach me and taught me and told me to respect all religions.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

God is not interested in religions. God is interested in relationships.

~Seen on a Church Billboard~

I came to the conclusion long ago that all religions were true and that also that all had some error in them, and while I hold by my own religion, I should hold other religions as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we were Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu; but our innermost prayer should be that a Hindu should become a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

I do not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use of discussing all the subtle doctrines about the soul? Do good and be good. And this will take you to freedom and to whatever truth there is …

~Buddha~

Religions divide people, just as styles in martial art divide people. If all the religions of the world were one, the world would be united in brotherhood. Some people fight with others because they believe in different religions. If, however, they only gave the matter a bit of thought, they would never fight for such a foolish cause.

~Bruce Lee~

My God is better than your God!

~Seen in a Magazine~

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God-given and I believe that they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that if only we could, all of us, read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of these faiths, we should find that they were at the bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

~Kahlil Gibran~

God is too big to fit in one religion.

~Northern Sun Merchandising Bumper Sticker~

God save us from religion.

~David Eddings~

God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.

~Ramakrishna~

If God chooses one people over another people, then God is a bigot. You cannot say this is also a God of love, God is kind, God is no respecter of kith and kin …

~John Henrik Clarke~

One religion is as true as another.

~Robert Burton~

Would a tunnel-visioned God have created a wide-spectrum world?

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

All teachings are mere references. The true experience is living your own life. Then, even the holiest of words are only words.

~Deng Ming-Dao~

Everyone must come out of his Exile in his own way.

~Martin Buber~

You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple.

~John Lennon~

A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.

~Vique~

They say religion is about love, but you wonder how much of it really is about fear.

~Deb Caletti~

Many are the names of God and infinite the forms through which He may be approached.

~Ramakrishna~

One’s own religion is after all a matter between oneself and one’s Maker and no one else’s.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

Our Creator is the same and never changes despite the names given Him by the people here and in all parts of the world.

~George Washington Carver~

God is One, and liketh unity.

~Prophet Muhammad~

How sensible to believe that we come from God and that we return to God. It is so much easier to participate in our oneness when we know that we all emanate from the same source—that we, too, are divine. This way we don’t get confused and exhausted by spiritual competition. We all belong … When I see the divinity in another, I am more likely to experience my own… We are all whanau [family] to the Creator.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all. Each one prays to God according to his own light.

~Mahatma Gandhi~

As I’m saying to you, that will, that first great force, is love. You may call him Jehovah, God, Allah, the Creator.

~Augusto Sandino~

We should start with the making of a spiritual revolution. Most of us, one way or the other, some place or the other, associate with some form of religion and some form of church. I am not asking anyone to believe anything. I’m saying that everything that touches your life should be an instrument of liberation and that making your spirituality and instrument of liberation does not make you one mite less religious, but more so.

~John Henrik Clarke~

The Christian Gospel is a two-way road. On the one hand, it seeks to change the souls of men and thereby unite them with God; on the other hand, it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

People see God every day; they just don’t recognize Him.

~Pearl Bailey~

God is at home, it’s we who have gone out for a walk.

~Meister Eckhart~

God is everywhere but He is most manifest in man. So serve man as God. That is as good as worshipping God.

~Ramakrishna~

There are two images of God-Cosmos and Humankind.

~Temt Tchaas~

Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.

~Prophet Muhammad~

What one thinks about God will determine one’s attitude toward self, neighbor, vocation, earthly future and eternal destiny.

~Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.~

How we see God affects the way we live our lives. If God is the angry power who censures and punishes us, we probably live with fear and anxiety. If, however, we recognize that God is in all of us, then we can start to treat ourselves and our brothers and sisters with respect. We are quick to spot the devil in us, why not the divine. It is the light within that can light our lives and light our way.

~Eric V. Copage~

When I entertain the spirit of God within each person, that spirit glows more brightly, in them and in me!

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

The bravest soul truly conquers all,

In seeing God in our fellow man;

This planet is just a spinning ball

Of God’s wondrous spiritual plan.

~Marcus Garvey~

Let us remember, O God that our religion in life is expressed in our work …

~W.E.B. Du Bois~

I’m a man of God and me come to do God’s work.

~Bob Marley~

A good deed is the best form of prayer.

~Serbian Proverb~

When I ask only to do the work of the Creator, the Creator responds.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

God is looking for those who come to Him.

~Proverb of Ukraine~

The Good is the one who gives all things and naught receives. God, then, is Good and Good is God … For God’s nature and the Good are one; one is the kind of both, from which all other kinds proceed.

~Temt Tchaas~

In every man there is the spirit of God, that is to say, that which is there to advise you and direct you to do good always, and in each man also is the free-will soul which is the mind.

~Marcus Garvey~

The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.

~Meister Eckhart~

The kingdom of God is within you.

~Luke 17:21~

The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself.

~Ramakrishna~

Love God and find him within—the only treasure worth finding.

~Meher Baba~

You think the church is a less spiritual institution when it is engaging in education? It is not; it is a more spiritual institution.

~John Henrik Clarke~

When I am grounded in community, I am grounded with my God.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

God has given each normal person a capacity to achieve some end. True, some are endowed with more talent than others, but God has left none of us talentless.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Most of us have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us commit it to our lives.

~Brother~

Belief is participation. Spirituality is participation. Only when we participate are we in touch with the spiritual.

~Anne Wilson Schaef~

When you’ve got so much religion that you can’t mingle with people, that you’re afraid of certain people, you’ve got too much religion.

~C.L. Franklin~

In looking at a spiritual revolution, we have to make our spirituality a part of our totality and not a weekend matter for getting dressed up and going out on Sunday. It must be a part of our total approach to life: how we treat our children, how we treat our wives, how we treat our uncles, or we deal with the evil ones, how we deal with the drunken ones.

~John Henrik Clarke~

There isn’t a certain time we should set aside to talk about God. God is part of our every waking moment.

~Marva Collins~

Everything we do should be a result of our gratitude for what God has done for us.

~Lauryn Hill~

Someday you will beg God for mercy. Be merciful to beggars now.

~African Proverb~

O Thou Incarnate Word of God to man, make us this Christmas night to realize Thy truth: we are not Christians because we profess Thy name and celebrate the ceremonies and idly reiterate the prayers of the church, but only in so far as we really comprehend and follow the Christian spirit—we must be poor and not rich, meek and not proud, merciful and not oppressors, peaceful and not warlike or quarrelsome. For the sake of the righteousness of our cause we must bow to persecution and reviling, again and again turn the stricken cheek to the striker; and above all the cause of our neighbor must be to us dearer than our own cause. This is Christianity. God help us all to be Christians. Amen.

~W.E.B. Du Bois~

Keep the weekdays honest and it will be easy to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

~Minnesota Proverb~

Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

Happiness is following the will of God.

~African Proverb~

When God gives you something … never hesitate. Grab and hold on to it. Receive it and then give it away.

~Brother~

Men and women are to become God-like through a life of virtue and the cultivation of the spirit through scientific knowledge, practice, and bodily discipline.

~Temt Tchaas~

God is working in this world and at this hour and at this moment. And God grants that we will get on board and start marching with God, because we got orders now to break down the bondage and the walls of colonialism, exploitation, and imperialism, to break them down to the point that no man will trample over another man, but that all men will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

With God all things are possible.

~Matthew 19:26~

Black theology seeks to depict Jesus as a fighting God who saw the exchange of Roman money—the oppressor’s coinage—in His father’s temple as so sacrilegious that it merited a violent reaction from Him—the Son of Man.

~Stephen Biko~

I was brought up a Christian, but I regarded Christ as a rebel, a revolutionary.

~Daniel Ortega~

We are saying that we are God’s children. And that we don’t have to live like we are forced to live.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.~

God will not suffer us, always to be oppressed … Does the Lord condescend to hear their cries and see their tears in consequence of oppression? Will he let the oppressors rest comfortably and happy always? Will he