He’d thought all weak men were sissies, and maybe they were, but Paul had shown him that not all sissies were weak.

If you different, be different. People’ll get used to it. They ain’t got no other choice.

We had been concerned with complex, invisible knowledge, when we should’ve also been searching for God in simple things. Senior.

When we’d had slaves, we’d purchased people’s labor – not their bodies! We never thought we owned someone’s arms, legs, feet, heart. How was that possible? How much does an arm cost? A leg? Feet? Hands? How.

God has a way of making sure you reach your destiny, regardless of what others do to you.

Among us lived every spirit conceivable. Men who loved women, women who loved men. Women who loved women, men who loved men. These were not choices but life assignments. Everyone had one.

We were wonderful, but we were not flawless. We knew excellence because we knew failure. We were human beings.

Truth was, they died as we died. It made sense. The universe demands life for life.

The pain of what happened next lives in our collective memory. It mauls our souls each day. Yet it must be told. Silence guarantees no healing. It promises that the child’s life would be forgotten and that its mission might, one day, be thought significant. Silence is the enemy of history, and history is all we have.

Sometimes, when people think they’re putting obstacles in your path, they’re actually laying your stepping-stones. You just gotta recognize them as one and the same.