Discover a collection of empowering quotes by African-American figures that will inspire and uplift you. Dive into the wisdom of influential voices in African-American history with these powerful quotes.
Explore the profound wisdom and inspiration from African-American voices in history with these empowering quotes by African-American figures.
Let the powerful, positive words of Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, and others guide you towards strength and resilience. These inspiring quotes encapsulate the spirit of perseverance and hope within the African-American community.
1. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Nelson Mandela
2. “Racism is man's gravest threat to man – the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel
3. “Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
4. “The only limitations one has, are the ones they place on themselves.”
Muhammad Ali
5. “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.”
Coretta Scott King
6. “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”
W.E.B. Du Bois
7. “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise, I rise, I rise.”
Maya Angelou
8. “When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”
George Washington Carver
9. “Nobody's as powerful as we make them out to be.”
Alice Walker
10. “We are powerful because we have survived.”
Audre Lorde
11. “If you look at the world the same way when you're 50 that you did when you were 20, then you wasted 30 years.”
Muhammad Ali
12. “There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
13. “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”
Frederick Douglas
14. “History has shown us that courage can be contagious, and hope can take on a life of its own.”
Michelle Obama
15. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
Maya Angelou
16. “It isn't where you come from; it's where you're going that counts.”
Ella Fitzgerald
17. “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. ”
Martin Luther King Jr.
18. “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
Coretta Scott King
19. “You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
Maya Angelou
20. “You have to be true to who you are.”
Kobe Bryant
21. “And it's possible to monetize your art without compromising the integrity of it for commerce.”
Nipsey Hussle
22. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false and to incur my own abhorrence.”
Frederick Douglas
23. “If you haven't got it, you can't show it. If you have got it, you can't hide it.”
Zora Neale Hurston
24. “We need Joy as we need air. We need Love as we need water. We need each other as we need the earth we share.”
Maya Angelou
25. “If you believe in a cause, be willing to stand up for that cause with a million people or by yourself.”
26. “Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.”
Rosa Parks
27. “My thing is that I don't give no person that much power over my path that I'm walking. Not one person can make or break what I'm doing, except me or God.”
Nipsey Hussle
28. “Don't count the days, make the days count.”
Muhammad Ali
29. “You measure the size of the accomplishment by the obstacles you had to overcome to reach your goals.”
Booker T. Washington
30. “If you want to fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”
Toni Morrison
31. “The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision.”
32. “Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.”
Zora Neale Hurston
33. “You lose nothing when fighting for a cause... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.”
Muhammad Ali
34. “Hope and change are hard-fought things.”
Michelle Obama
35. “All I was doing was trying to get home from work.”
Rosa Parks
36. “I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.”
Langston Hughes
37. “You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”
Shirley Chisholm
38. “Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.”
Ella Fitzgerald
39. “Truth is powerful and it prevails.”
Sojourner Truth
40. “None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.”
Cornel West
41. “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Ida B. Wells
42. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Maya Angelou
43. “Even the greatest was once a beginner. Don't be afraid to take that first step.”
Muhammad Ali
44. “Courage is the power of the mind to overcome fear.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
45. “There is nothing more majestic than the determined courage of individuals willing to suffer and sacrifice for their freedom and dignity. ”
Martin Luther King Jr.
46. “I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.”
Audre Lorde
47. “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”
Zora Neale Hurston
48. “Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.”
Booker T. Washington
49. “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”
Martin Luther King Jr.
50. “Everything negative (pressure, challenges) is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
Kobe Bryant
51. “The path to your success is not as fixed and inflexible as you think.”
Misty Copeland
52. “If I can have any impact, I want women to feel good about themselves and have fun with fashion.”
Michelle Obama
53. “Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
54. “None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.”
Marian Anderson
55. “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.”
Audre Lorde
Unleash the power of positivity and motivation in your daily life by exploring more empowering quotes by African-American figures on the Motivation App. Let these words of wisdom uplift and inspire you to reach new heights of success and fulfillment.
