100+ Inspiring Quotes Celebrating Black History
The story of black history is rich with resilience, bravery, and an enduring fight for justice. Through the words and wisdom of influential figures, we gain insights into the struggles and triumphs that have shaped black history. This article explores quotes that encapsulate the essence of black history, broken down into themes that reveal the profound impact of these voices. From justice and equality to hope and empowerment, the words of these historic figures offer a glimpse into the soul of black history, inspiring us to continue the journey toward a more inclusive and understanding future.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The time is always right to do what is right." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Where there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass
"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept." - Angela Davis
"Justice is never given; it is exacted." - A. Philip Randolph
"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." - Frederick Douglass
"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression." - W.E.B. Du Bois
"Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population." - Albert Einstein
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war." - Haile Selassie
"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." - Amos of the Old Testament
"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life." - Muhammad Ali
"I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." - William Ernest Henley
"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." - Zig Ziglar
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." - Nelson Mandela
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any." - Alice Walker
"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which one has overcome." - Booker T. Washington
"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." - Nelson Mandela
"Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency." - Maya Angelou
"Fear is a habit; I am not afraid." - A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
"You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." - Shirley Chisholm
"It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela
"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying." - Michael Jordan
"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim." - Nora Ephron
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela
"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
"The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." - Herbert Spencer
"The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead." - Aristotle
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass
"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you." - B.B. King
"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today." - Malcolm X
"Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"When we know better, we do better." - Maya Angelou
"Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace." - Confucius
"Learning never exhausts the mind." - Leonardo da Vinci
"Change is the end result of all true learning." - Leo Buscaglia
"Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness." - Desmond Tutu
"However long the night, the dawn will break." - African Proverb
"The human capacity for burden is like bamboo – far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance." - Jodi Picoult
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." - Helen Keller
"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated." - Maya Angelou
"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer." - Harriet Tubman
"Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do." - Ella Fitzgerald
"You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have." - Michelle Obama
"There is no future without forgiveness." - Desmond Tutu
"Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality." - Jonas Salk
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right." - Rosa Parks
"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." - Ida B. Wells
"Stand up for what is right, even if you stand alone." - Suzy Kassem
"I am not afraid... I was born to do this." - Joan of Arc
"Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet." - Alice Walker
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up." - Rosa Parks
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." - Alice Walker
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass
"Never underestimate the power of your vision to change the world." - Leroy Hood
"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything." - Malcolm X
"Activism is not a journey to the corner store; it is a plunge into the unknown." - Rebecca Solnit
"Being black is not a matter of pigmentation – being black is a reflection of a mental attitude." - Steve Biko
"Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it." - James Baldwin
"To be Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time." - James Baldwin
"Every day we have the opportunity to create a more accepting and kinder world by widening our circles of compassion." - Oprah Winfrey
"What we need is not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic." - Jimmy Carter
"Preservation of one's own culture does not require contempt or disrespect for other cultures." - Cesar Chavez
"I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me." - Kwame Nkrumah
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey
"If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go." - James Baldwin
"You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way." - Lena Horne
"Black culture is nothing if not a multiplicity of realities, an irrepressible energy and indomitable spirit."' - Robin D.G. Kelley
"There is power in numbers, and there is power in unity." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." - Mahatma Gandhi
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity?" - Bell Hooks
"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." - Maya Angelou
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." - Malcolm X
"Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom." - Hannah Arendt
"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." - Mother Teresa
"Hate has caused a lot of problems in the world but has not solved one yet." - Maya Angelou
"Our capacity to draw happiness from aesthetic objects or material goods in fact seems critically dependent on first satisfying a more important range of emotional or psychological needs." - Alain de Botton
"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." - Lewis B. Smedes
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader
"Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration." - Robin S. Sharma
"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." - Martin Luther King Jr.
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." - Ronald Reagan
"Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work." - Seth Godin
"True leaders understand that leadership is not about them but those they serve." - Bishop T. D. Jakes
"Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you." - Margaret Thatcher
"To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart." - Eleanor Roosevelt
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." - John Quincy Adams
"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." - Warren Bennis
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi
"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way." - John C. Maxwell
"Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. They claim it as their own and none can keep it from them." - Kwame Nkrumah
"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
"Liberty is the right to do what the law permits." - Montesquieu
"Freedom is never given; it is won." - A. Philip Randolph
"True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline." - Mortimer J. Adler
"The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off." - Gloria Steinem
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity." - Herbert Hoover
"When I discover who I am, I’ll be free." - Ralph Ellison
"Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." - Albert Einstein
"To enjoy freedom, we have to control ourselves." - Virginia Woolf
"You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." - Malcolm X
"Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones." - Shannon L. Alder
"The greatest use of a life is to spend it on something that will outlast it." - William James
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal." - Albert Pine
"Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors." - Jonas Salk
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others." - Pericles
"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." - Albert Einstein
"The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear." - Socrates
"Influence is not about elevating self, but about lifting others." - Sheri Dew
"One lives in the hope of becoming a memory." - Antonio Porchia
"You live on in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here." - Mitch Albom
"History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children." - Nelson Mandela
浙公网安备
33010002000092号
浙B2-20120091-4