African American Inspirational Quotes:

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

source: "50 stunning Olympic moments No35: Wilma Rudolph's triple gold in 1960" by Rob Bagchi, www.theguardian.com. June 1, 2012.

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Running, Influence And Power, Inspirational Athlete

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

source: June Jordan, “Poem For South African Women”

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Change, Times Have Changed, Inspirational Presidential

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

- Booker T. Washington

source: Booker T. Washington (1901). “An Autobiography: The Story of My Life and Work, the Original Brought Up-to-date with Over Half a Hundred Full Page Photo and Halftone Engravings and Drawings by Frank Beard”

topic: Inspirational, Life, Success, Best Success, Inspirational History

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Inspirational Addiction Recovery, Inspirational Adversity

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

- Maya Angelou

source: FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from May 15, 2013

topic: Inspirational, Change, Inspiring, Some People Never Change, Times Have Changed

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

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Impossible Dream, Inspirational Dream

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

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.67, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, Life, Inspiring, Social Equality, Love And Hate

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

- Michael Jordan

source: "I Can't Accept Not Trying : Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence". Book by Michael Jordan (p. 129), 1994.

topic: Motivational, Change, Basketball, Favorite Sports, Young Entrepreneurs

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

- Marian Wright Edelman

topic: Success, Winning, History, Persistence Inspirational, African American Inspirational

Never be limited by other people's limited imaginations. If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won't exist because you'll have already shut it out...You can hear other people's wisdom, but you've got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.

- Mae Jemison

topic: Attitude, People, Imagination, Business Growth, African American History

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

- Maya Angelou

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Change, Make People Feel Better, Live For Yourself

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

- Langston Hughes

source: "Dreams" l. 1 (1929)

topic: Love, Inspirational, Broken Heart, Inspirational Dream, Columnists

I learned to put my trust in God and to see Him as my strength. Long ago I set my mind to be a free person and not to give in to fear. I always felt that it was my right to defend myself if I could. I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

- Rosa Parks

topic: Long Ago, Years, Knowing, Empowering Women, I Am Strong

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.

- George Washington Carver

topic: Inspirational, Hope, Black, Inspiring Leader, Mission And Vision

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

- Lou Holtz

topic: Inspirational, Way, Break, Inspirational Football, My Attitude

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

- Oprah Winfrey

topic: Inspirational, Positive, Happiness, About Success, Inspirational Achievement

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

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Running, Inspirational Diversity, African American History

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

- Coretta Scott King

source: "Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World". Book by Leo Parvis, p. 54, 2010.

topic: Inspirational, Inspiring, Forgiveness, Importunate, Love And Hate

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

topic: Inspirational, Life, Inspiring, Imagine That, Fear Of Success

You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

- Eldridge Cleaver

source: Speech to San Francisco Barristers' Club, San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 1968.

topic: Life, Idaho, Politics, African American History, African American Inspirational

I've missed more than 9000 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

source: "Nike Culture : The Sign of the Swoosh". Book by Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson (p. 49), 1998.

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Favorite Sports, Best Success

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

- June Jordan

topic: Waiting, Times Have Changed, Inspirational Change, Inspirational Presidential, Time And Change

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

topic: Inspirational, Dream, Slave, Inspirational History, Daybreak

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

- Carol Moseley Braun

topic: Freedom, Challenges, Faces, Defining Myself, Difficult Challenges

we are the ones we have been waiting for

- Alice Walker

source: Alice Walker (2013). “The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker”, p.342, The New Press

topic: Confidence, Waiting, African American, Times Have Changed, Inspirational Presidential

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. There should be no indulgence in undue eulogy of the Negro. The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has far influenced the development of civilization.

- Carter G. Woodson

source: Carter G. Woodson (2008). “Negro Makers of History”, p.20, Wildside Press LLC

topic: Religious, Hate, Taken, Inspirational History, Race In America

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander.

- Mary McLeod Bethune

topic: Responsibility, Patriotism, Faces, Discrimination And Racism, Racism In America

Racism is not an excuse to not do the best you can.

- Arthur Ashe

topic: Racism, Excuse, Ethnic Identity, African American History, African American History Month

Returning hate for hate multiplies hate...

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Hate, Social Equality, Love And Hate, Make Peace Not War, Social Programs

I used to want the words 'She tried' on my tombstone. Now I want 'She did it.'

- Katherine Dunham

topic: Success, Tombstone, Want, African American Inspirational, African American Women

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Wisdom, Peace, Freedom, Social Equality, Social Injustice

I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

- Zora Neale Hurston

source: World Tomorrow "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928)

topic: Knives, Oysters, World, Lurking, African Women

You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.

- Frederick Douglass

topic: Men, Black History, Slave, African American History, African American History Month

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

- Booker T. Washington

topic: Inspirational, Work, Writing, Personal Dignity, Race In America

I know why the caged bird sings.

- Maya Angelou

source: Title of book (1969), taken from the last line of "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar in Lyrics of Hearthside (1899). Cf. Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 567:10

topic: Inspirational, Children, Book, Carols, Best Poem

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less. No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

- Zora Neale Hurston

source: World Tomorrow "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928)

topic: Strong, Hurt, Dirty, All Black, Colored Eyes

I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything. The sun came up like gold through the trees, and I felt like I was in heaven.

- Harriet Tubman

source: "Harriet, The Moses of Her People". Book by Sarah H. Bradford, 1886.

topic: Freedom, Hands, Heaven, African American History, African American History Month

Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land.

- Cornel West

source: Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.16, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, America, Land, Black People, African American History