The Nickel Boys

Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.

Act above your station, and you will pay

We must believe in our souls that we are somebody, that we are significant, that we are worthful, and we must walk the streets of life every day with this sense of dignity and this sense of somebody-ness.

There were legends about the valuables that rich white people left in their rooms

You can change the law but you can’t change people and how they treat each other.

Watch and think and plan.

Nobody else is going to get you out—just you.

The key to in here is the same as surviving out there—you got to see how people act, and then you got to figure out how to get around them like an obstacle course

Hard work was a fundamental virtue, for hard work didn’t allow time for marches or sit-ins.

It didn’t make no sense until it made the only sense.