From Mama we learned what sort of people we should be, and we loved her as a confidante; but Papa's image was the mold of our dreams. (p52)

I have always wanted to be both man and woman, to incorporate the strongest and richest parts of my mother and father within/into me — to share valleys and mountains upon my body the way the earth does in hills and peaks.

A mother's pride, a father's joy.

My dad A.D. King, Uncle MLK, and Granddaddy King passed on to me their beliefs on biblical marriage. Life is a human and civil right, so is procreative marriage... We must now go back to the beginning, starting with Genesis, and teach about God’s plan for marriage... It's time to start from scratch and lay the foundation all over again.

I think the destiny of all men is to be kings, the destiny of all women is to be queens. In some fashion or another, that's the destiny that we call it family but it's supposed to be that.

“The best parent is both parents” means mommy is no substitute for daddy, money is no substitute for daddy, and another man is no substitute for daddy.

There is a Mrs. King. There is also Coretta. How one became detached from the other remains a mystery to me. Most people who have followed my career from afar, or even given me a second thought, know me as Mrs. King: the wife of, the widow of, the mother of, the leader of. Makes me sound like the attachments that come with my vacuum cleaner. In one sense, I don't mind that at all. I'm proud to have been a wife, a single parent, and a leader. But I am more than a label. I am also Coretta. Isn't it time you know the integrated, holistic woman: one spirit, one soul, one destiny? In reading this memoir, I hope somehow you see Coretta.

Mothers with marriageable daughters ought to look out for men of this stamp, men with brains to act as protecting divinity, with worldly wisdom to diagnose like a surgeon, and with experience to take a mother’s place in warding off evil. These are the three cardinal virtues in matrimony.

[We are] not only prince and king, but set on such a pinnacle of dignity that we know no superior on earth.

Father is strength at home, strength in government and strength overseas. Mother represents upbringing, education, the spread of civilization. Children are the lower classes, the lower races, to be brought to maturity and then set free

That if the best of Kings—the most virtuous of Queens—and the most perfect Constitution, could make any nation happy, the people of this country had every reason to think themselves so.

My mom and dad are the two strong pillars of my life.

Women are more than mothers and men are more than fathers.

The best among you are those who are best to their wives.