189 Black Inspirational Quotes to Celebrate Strength and Pride

"I am dripping in melanin and honey. I am Black without apology."

- Upile Chisala

"The black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness."

- Marcus Garvey

"I find, in being Black, a thing of beauty: a joy a strength a secret cup of gladness."

- Ossie Davis

"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

"We have always been wonderful. I see us reflected in the world's most heavenly things. Black is king. We were beauty before they knew what beauty was."

- Beyoncé Knowles

"I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me."

- Muhammad Ali

"Like that poem that Maya Angelou said, that we are the hope and the dream of a slave. If you think about what the slave had to go through, and then the life that we are privileged to live — I wouldn't want to be any other color…I'm really proud to wear this color every single day of my life."

- Serena Williams

"Own your magic, walk in your purpose, and rock your truth."

- Beverly Bond

"We are pow­er­ful because we have sur­vived, and that is what it is all about- sur­vival and growth."

- Audre Lorde

"Just don't give up what you're trying to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

- Ella Fitzgerald

"Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations."

- Dr. Mae Jemison

"We must never forget that Black History is American History. The achievements of African Americans have contributed to our nation's greatness."

- Yvette Clarke

"The moment anyone tries to demean or degrade you in any way, you have to know how great you are. Nobody would bother to beat you down if you were not a threat."

- Cicely Tyson

"For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them."

- Madam C.J. Walker

"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

- Maya Angelou

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

- Frederick Douglass

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

- Langston Hughes

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."

- Audre Lorde

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

- Barack Obama

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear."

- Rosa Parks

"Freedom is never given; it is won."

- A. Philip Randolph

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us."

- Wilma Rudolph

"Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."

- Booker T. Washington

"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does -- that makes you a winner right there."

- Venus Williams

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

- Malcolm X

"You are your best thing."

- Toni Morrison

"To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try."

- Rosa Parks

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."

- George Washington Carver

"If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring in a folding chair."

- Shirley Chisholm

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

- Nelson Mandela

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up."

- Rosa Parks

"Ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is not the struggle of one judicial appointment or presidential term. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime, or maybe even many lifetimes, and each one of us in every generation must do our part."

- John Lewis

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing."

- Muhammad Ali

"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."

- Michael Jordan

"I need to see my own beauty and to continue to be reminded that I am enough, that I am worthy of love without effort, that I am beautiful, that the texture of my hair and that the shape of my curves, the size of my lips, the color of my skin, and the feelings that I have are all worthy and okay."

- Tracee Ellis Ross

"As black women, we're always given these seemingly devastating experiences—experiences that could absolutely break us. But what the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls the butterfly. What we do as black women is take the worst situations and create from that point."

- Viola Davis

"Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am."

- Janelle Monáe

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

- Nelson Mandela

"There is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."

- Amanda Gorman

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."

- Angela Davis

"I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

- Frederick Douglass

"If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life."

- Marcus Garvey

"We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free."

- Amanda Gorman

"Our mistreatment was just not right, and I was tired of it."

- Rosa Parks

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."

- Harriet Tubman

"In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe."

- Michael Jackson

"The outside world told black kids when I was growing up that we weren't worth anything. But our parents said it wasn't so, and our churches and our schoolteachers said it wasn't so. They believed in us, and we, therefore, believed in ourselves."

- Marian Wright Edelman

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."

- Alice Walker

"I am a product of every other black woman before me who has done or said anything worthwhile. Recognizing that I am part of history is what allows me to soar."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare."

- Muhammad Ali

"Choosing yourself is a revolutionary act of integrity."

- Jennifer Arnise

"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

"Whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free . . . your true self comes out."

- Tina Turner

"Don't follow the path. Go where there is no path and begin the trail."

- Ruby Bridges

"It is extremely rough to follow through with my goals, but I felt a responsibility to show the world what the African Americans are facing through this rough patch."

- Ida B. Wells

"If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn't be here. I guarantee you that."

- Michelle Obama

"Wanna fly, you got to give up the s — — that weighs you down."

- Toni Morrison

"I don't like to lose — at anything… Yet I've grown most not from victories, but setbacks. If winning is God's reward, then losing is how he teaches us."

- Serena Williams

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."

- Muhammad Ali

"What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have."

- Oprah Winfrey

"I looked up the road I was going and back the way I come, and since I wasn't satisfied, I decided to step off the road and cut me a new path."

- Maya Angelou

"I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance."

- Bell Hooks

"You can fall, but you can rise also."

- Angelique Kidjo

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation."

- Arthur Ashe

"If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything... that smacks of discrimination or slander."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

"We will all, at some point, encounter hurdles to gaining access and entry, moving up and conquering self-doubt; but on the other side is the capacity to own opportunity and tell our own story."

- Stacey Abrams

"I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger."

- Serena Williams

"When I look at the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes."

- Oprah Winfrey

"We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort."

- Jesse Owens

"Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself."

- Oprah Winfrey

"Dreams are lovely but they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change."

- Shonda Rhimes

"Even in dark times, we not only dream, we do. We not only see what has been, we see what can be. We shoot for the moon, and then we plant our flag on it. We are bold, fearless, and ambitious. We are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome; that we will rise up. This is American aspiration."

- Kamala Harris

"Success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives."

- Michelle Obama

"It isn't where you come from; it's where you're going that counts."

- Ella Fitzgerald

"One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am."

- Michelle Obama

"Being a Black woman writer is not a shallow place but a rich place to write from. It doesn't limit my imagination; it expands it. It's richer than being a white male writer because I know more and I've experienced more."

- Toni Morrison

"A people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."

- Marcus Garvey

"The very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being."

- Toni Morrison

"We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent."

- Barack Obama

"I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try."

- Nikki Giovanni

"I think education is power. I think that being able to communicate with people is power. One of my main goals on the planet is to encourage people to empower themselves."

- Oprah Winfrey

"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of that tapestry are equal in value no matter their color."

- Maya Angelou

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

- Lou Holtz

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

- Audre Lorde

"You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day."

- Marian Wright Edelman

"No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams."

- Jesse Jackson

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

- Maya Angelou

"Yes we can!"

- Barack Obama

"There's always something to suggest that you'll never be who you wanted to be. Your choice is to take it or keep on moving."

- Phylicia Rashad

"I believe in destiny. But I also believe that you can't just sit back and let destiny happen…You can't sit there waiting on it. A lot of times you are going to have to get out there and make it happen."

- Spike Lee

"Black History Month is more than a celebration. It's a powerful reminder that Black history is American history…it's critical that we take the time to celebrate the contributions of Black Americans, honor the legacy of generations past, reckon with centuries of injustice and confront injustice that still festers today."

- President Joe Biden

"As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American Blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world."

- Nina Simone

"He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."

- Muhammad Ali

"The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."

- W.E.B. Du Bois

"You really can change the world if you care enough."

- Marian Wright Edelman

"The time is always right to do what is right."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself--the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us--that's where it's at."

- Jesse Owens

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude."

- Colin Powell

"Whatever we believe about ourselves and our ability comes true for us."

- Susan L. Taylor

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up."

- Booker T. Washington

"I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism."

- Oprah Winfrey

"We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice."

- Carter Woodson

"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time."

- Angela Davis

"Learning to stand in somebody else's shoes, to see through their eyes, that's how peace begins."

- Barack Obama

"History has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own."

- former First Lady Michelle Obama

"The whole world opened to me when I learned to read."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference."

- Denzel Washington

"The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on."

- Barack Obama

"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time."

- Malcolm X

"Have a vision of excellence, a dream of success, and work like hell."

- Dr. Samuel DuBois Cook

"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

"Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make the life you want to live."

- Dr. Mae Jemison

"Hold on to your dreams of a better life and stay committed to striving to realize it."

- Earl G. Graves, Sr.

"Won't it be wonderful when black history and Native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history."

- Maya Angelou

"I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history."

- Morgan Freeman

"Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance; it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead."

- Marty Meehan

"National Black History Month serves as both a celebration and a powerful reminder that Black history is American history, Black culture is American culture, and Black stories are essential to the ongoing story of America—our faults, our struggles, our progress, and our aspirations. Shining a light on Black history today is as important to understanding ourselves and growing stronger as a Nation as it has ever been."

- Joe Biden

"My biggest discovery was that you can literally re-create your life. You can redefine it. You don't have to live in the past. I found that not only did I have fight in me, I had love."

- Viola Davis

"Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion, you're wasting your life."

- Jackie Robinson

"I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as early as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit."

- Ida B. Wells

"Developing a good work ethic is key. Apply yourself at whatever you do because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life."

- Tyler Perry

"Go out there and swear to this world your oath, not with your words, but with what you do. Not with your hand over your heart, but with your hand outstretched to a world that desperately needs your hand, your help, your insights, your creativity, your honor, your courage. It needs you."

- Cory Booker

"If your success is defined as being well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference, then we don't want successful leaders. We want great leaders who love the people enough and respect the people enough to be unbought, unbound, unafraid, and unintimidated to tell the truth."

- Cornel West

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

- Barack Obama

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

- Martin Luther King III

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these."

- George Washington Carver

"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."

- Desmond Tutu

"In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."

- Booker T. Washington

"Have a vision. Be demanding."

- Colin Powell

"Your life is already artful- waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art."

- Toni Morrison

"For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place."

- Maya Angelou

"The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind."

- Maya Angelou

"We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business; we are each other's magnitude and bond."

- Gwendolyn Brooks

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope."

- George Washington Carver

"The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."

- Eldridge Cleaver

"Our nation is a rainbow - red, yellow, brown, black, and white - and we're all precious in God's sight."

- Jesse Jackson

"Greatness can be captured in one word: lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it."

- Mae Jemison

"One thing is clear to me: We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves."

- Barbara Jordan

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated."

- Coretta Scott King

"We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. Our abundance has brought us neither peace of mind nor serenity of spirit."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."

- Nelson Mandela

"In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."

- Thurgood Marshall

"Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face."

- Carol Moseley Braun

"Each person must live their life as a model for others."

- Rosa Parks

"Truth is powerful and it prevails."

- Sojourner Truth

"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not."

- Oprah Winfrey

"When you control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his actions."

- Carter G. Woodson

"I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can't fail if you do that."

- Anita Hill

"I believe a child going without an education is a crime."

- Vice President Kamala Harris

"Stretch your mind and fly."

- Whitney M. Young Jr.

"Education is transformational. It changes lives. That is why people work so hard to become educated and why education has always been the key to the American Dream, the force that erases arbitrary divisions of race and class and culture and unlocks every person's God-given potential."

- Condoleezza Rice

"I'm hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That's what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that's from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter."

- Jay-Z

"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success."

- Malcolm X

"Character is power."

- Booker T. Washington

"When we're talking about diversity, it's not a box to check. It is a reality that should be deeply felt and held and valued by all of us."

- Ava DuVernay

"The mere imparting of information is not education. Above all things, the effort must result in making a man think and do for himself."

- Carter G. Woodson

"Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift."

- Oprah Winfrey

"If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."

- Martin Luther King III

"Greatness occurs when your children love you, when your critics respect you and when you have peace of mind."

- Quincy Jones

"You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it."

- Malcolm X

"As long as there is poverty in the world I can never be rich, even if I have a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people in this world cannot expect to live more than twenty-eight or thirty years, I can never be totally healthy even if I just got a good checkup at Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. No individual or nation can stand out boasting of being independent. We are interdependent."

- Martin Luther King III

"I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

- Audre Lorde

"Do not bring people in your life who weigh you down. And trust your instincts … good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don't hurt. They're not painful. That's not just with somebody you want to marry, but it's with the friends that you choose. It's with the people you surround yourselves with."

- Michelle Obama

"You never know which experiences of life are going to be of value . . . You've got to leave yourself open to the hidden opportunities."

- Robin Roberts

"You never know how or when you'll have an impact, or how important your example can be to someone else."

- Denzel Washington

"History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals."

- Malcolm X

"The thing about Black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up."

- Henry Louis Gates

"Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard."

- Colin Powell

"All I know is I've tried my best."

- Tiger Woods

"A leader…is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the other follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind."

- Nelson Mandela

"Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living."

- Mary McLeod Bethune

"We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams."

- Jimmy Carter

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place."

- Zora Neale Hurston

"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

- Nelson Mandela

"Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough."

- Billie Holiday

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter."

- James Earl Jones

"I think if we are actually going to accept our generation's responsibility, that's going to mean that we give our children no less retirement security than we inherited from our parents."

- Carol Moseley Braun

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus."