Black History Month is a time to honor the incredible contributions, achievements, and resilience of Black individuals throughout history. Here are 50 inspirational quotes from influential Black men and women that will inspire and empower you.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: "The time is always right to do what is right."
- Maya Angelou: "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."
- Harriet Tubman: "Every great dream begins with a dreamer."
- Nelson Mandela: "It always seems impossible until it's done."
- Rosa Parks: "I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up."
- Malcolm X: "Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."
- Oprah Winfrey: "Turn your wounds into wisdom."
- Frederick Douglass: "If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
- Serena Williams: "The success of every woman should be an inspiration to another."
- Barack Obama: "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time."
- Michelle Obama: "Success isn't about how much money you make; it's about the difference you make in people's lives."
- James Baldwin: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."
- Ella Baker: "Give light and people will find the way."
- Langston Hughes: "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly."
- Toni Morrison: "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
- W.E.B. Du Bois: "The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression."
- Angela Davis: "I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."
- John Lewis: "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."
- Zora Neale Hurston: "There are years that ask questions and years that answer."
- Thurgood Marshall: "In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute."
- Ida B. Wells: "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: "We should all be feminists."
- Muhammad Ali: "Don't count the days; make the days count."
- Shirley Chisholm: "You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas."
- Nina Simone: "You've got to learn to leave the table when love's no longer being served."
- Katherine Johnson: "We will always have STEM with us. Some things will drop out of the public eye and will go away, but there will always be science, engineering, and technology."
- Misty Copeland: "You can start late, look different, be uncertain, and still succeed."
- James Earl Jones: "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter."
- Ava DuVernay: "Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work."
- Colin Kaepernick: "Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything."
- Lena Horne: "It's not the load that breaks you down; it's the way you carry it."
- Janelle Monáe: "Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am."
- Issa Rae: "Black women ain't bitter; they are just tired of being expected to settle for less."
- Zendaya: "I have standards I don't plan on lowering for anybody…including myself."
- Queen Latifah: "I am a strong woman with or without this other person, with or without this job, and with or without these tight pants."
- Tarana Burke: "Black women can do anything; we have proven that time and time again."
- Solange Knowles: "When you take care of yourself, you're a better person for others."
- Kimberly Bryant: "Anytime you get more than a couple of Black women together, you're creating this powerful mechanism for change."
- Ursula Burns: "I didn't learn to be quiet when I had an opinion; that's why they knew who I was."
- Franchesca Ramsey: "No matter where life takes me there will always be someone who's threatened by it."
- Iyanla Vanzant: "Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change."
- Mohadesa Najumi: "The woman who doesn't require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet."
- Alice Walker: "The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any."
- Madam C.J Walker: “Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come; get up and make them.”
- Arlene Rankin: “The way we think of ourselves has everything to do with how the world sees us.”
- Viola Davis: “Living out loud is living a life that's bigger than yourself.”
- Medgar Evers: “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea.”
- W.E.B Du Bois: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
- King Jr., Martin Luther: “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
- Dr Martin Luther King Jr.: “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.”