Independent Lens

Gray Davis:
[upon being asked whether the rumors that he was responsible for the black outs in California are just a plot by the Republican party to get him recalled] [shouts] Hello!

Jeff Skilling:
[comparing California to the Titanic] At least when the Titanic went down, the lights were on.

Bethany McLean:
Lou Pai left Enron with more money than anyone, because he sold all his stock after he divorced his wife to marry his stripper girlfriend who was having his child.

Kenneth Lay:
[Enron Executive Officer Ken Lay holds a meeting of investors after shady financial dealings of the company have recently been revealed] We're down to questions, and I've got a few of 'em here... I would like to know if you are on crack... If so, that would explain a lot, if not, you may want to start because it's going to be a long time before we trust you again.

Whitney Young:
Don't get mad, get smart. Never let anyone drag you so low as to hate them.

Richard Nixon:
He knew how to accomplish what other people were merely for.

Whitney Young:
Support the strong, give courage to the timid, remind the indifferent, and warn the opposed.

Whitney Young:
It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.

Whitney Young:
Our ability to create has outreached our ability to use wisely the products of our invention.

Whitney Young:
Black Power simply means: Look at me, I'm here. I have dignity. I have pride. I have roots. I insist, I demand that I participate in those decisions that affect my life and the lives of my children. It means that I am somebody.

Whitney Young:
I am not anxious to be the loudest voice or the most popular. But I would like to think that at a crucial moment, I was an effective voice of the voiceless, an effective hope of the hopeless.

Whitney Young:
Every man is our brother, and every man's burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reins, all are unequal.

Whitney Young:
Black is beautiful when it is a slum kid studying to enter college, when it is a man learning new skills for a new job, or a slum mother battling to give her kids a chance for a better life. But white is beautiful, too, when it helps change society to make our system work for black people also. White is ugly when it oppresses blacks-and so is black ugly when black people exploit other blacks. No race has a monopoly on vice or virtue, and the worth of an individual is not related to the color of his skin.

Whitney Young:
You don't get black power by chanting it. You get it by doing what the other groups have done. The Irish kept quiet. They didn't shout "Irish Power", "Jew Power", or "Italian Power". They kept their mouths shut and took over the police department of New York City, and the mayorship of Boston.

Whitney Young:
The danger is that people may mistake what is basically a change in vocabulary for a change in behavior, practices, and attitudes. While practically all Americans have learned to talk inoffensively, not enough have learned to think differently, nor act positively.

Whitney Young:
We create an environment where it is alright to hate, to steal, to cheat, and to lie if we dress it up with symbols of respectability, dignity and love.

Whitney Young:
The hardest work in the world is being out of work.

Michelle Obama:
For every Dr. King, there is a Whitney Young or a Roy Wilkins or a Dorothy Height, each of whom played a critical role in the struggle for change. And then there are the millions of Americans, regular folks out there, whose names will never show up in the history books.