Clarence Thomas

It would seem that some black people want to say that when you, as a black, become successful, you cease to be black. That's ridiculous. ”

I disagree with the prevailing point of view of some black leaders that special treatment for blacks is acceptable. ”

I think Juan stopped short - he got halfway to the destination and got off the train. He is certainly an excellent writer and a good person, but I'm not a nationalist. ”

It really bugs me that someone will tell me, after I spent 20 years being educated, how I'm supposed to think. ”

I don't know one of my friends who is considered a conservative who has not had to go back and thoroughly think through everything. You do a lot of soul-searching - 'cause we are not going to win any popularity contests. ”

You have a number of choices. You could continue to always fight against people who are really distractions. They're people in the cheap seats of life. Or you can do what you went there to do. ”

There's a difference between someone who's 'harsh' and someone who is 'hard.' Life was hard. You lived in the South, as my grandparents did, and you had to survive. That is hard. ”

The thing that bothered me when I was in college was that I saw myself rejecting the way of life that got me to where I was. ”

When I went into the seminary, I was one of those victims of New Math and had not had Algebra I and had no idea what we were doing in New Math in the ninth grade. But when I went into the seminary, they had gone the traditional route and taught first-year algebra. ”

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same. ”