85 Quotes From Black Women To Inspire You
At some point, we all need a little pick me up. Each of these quotes by notable Black women will provide you with inspiration and help you seize the day.
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 Tweet This
What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine. -Oprah Winfrey
I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can't fail if you do that. -Anita Hill
Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now. -Audre Lorde
It’s not about supplication, it’s about power. It’s not about asking, it’s about demanding. It’s not about convincing those who are currently in power, it’s about changing the very face of power itself. - Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts. -Nikki Giovanni
Don't feel entitled to anything you didn't sweat and struggle for. -Marian Wright Edelman
No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you. -Althea Gibson
As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you - the first time around. -Oprah Winfrey
We can say "Peace on Earth." We can sing about it, preach about it or pray about it, but if we have not internalized the mythology to make it happen inside us, then it will not be. -Betty Shabazz
It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. -Lena Horne
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. -Audre Lorde
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
Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself. -Alice Walker
Give light and people will find the way. -Ella Baker
Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. -Oprah Winfrey
All great achievements require time. -Maya Angelou
The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity. -Ruby Dee
Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth. -Shirley Chisholm
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The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. -Lorraine Hansberry
I get angry about things, then go on and work. -Toni Morrison
Just remember the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love. -Barbara Jordan
Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. -Billie Holiday
Greatness is not measured by what a man or woman accomplishes, but by the opposition he or she has overcome to reach his goals. -Dorothy Height
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
We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. - Marian Wright Edelman
You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas. - Shirley Chisholm
Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear. -Zora Neale Hurston
How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names. -Alice Walker
Learn to be quiet enough to hear the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others. - Marian Wright Edelman
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing. -Audre Lorde
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. -Maya Angelou
If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, you must be the one to write it. - Toni Morrison
Just because I have my standards they think I'm a bitch. -Diana Ross
Your silence will not protect you. -Audre Lorde
There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made. -Michelle Obama
Cease to be a drudge, seek to be an artist. -Mary McLeod Bethune
I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves. -Harriet Tubman
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. -Zora Neale Hurston
Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death. -Lena Horne
Is solace anywhere more comforting than that in the arms of a sister. -Alice Walker
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -Maya Angelou
Don't agonize, organize. -Florynce Kennedy
Everything will change. The only question is growing up or decaying. -Nikki Giovanni
I did my best, and God did the rest. -Hattie McDaniel
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. -Oprah Winfrey
You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day. -Marian Wright Edelman
Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. -Lorraine Hansberry
Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change -Iyanla Vanzant
Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation. -Coretta Scott King
If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive. -Audre Lorde
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
If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else. -Nikki Giovanni
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 it the life you want to live. -Mae Jemison
You never find yourself until you face the truth. -Pearl Bailey
Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all. -Toni Morrison
The greatest gift is not being afraid to question. -Ruby Dee
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Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. -Oprah Winfrey
You know, you do need mentors, but in the end, you really just need to believe in yourself. -Diana Ross
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. -Alice Walker
It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego. -bell hooks
Each person must live their life as a model for others. -Rosa Parks
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. -Maya Angelou
I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process. -Oprah Winfrey
Nobody's free until everybody's free. -Fannie Lou Hamer
A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die. -Nikki Giovanni
The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class-it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity. -Anna Julia Cooper
Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be. -Alice Walker
Always be smarter than the people who hire you. -Lena Horne
No person has the right to rain on your dreams. -Marian Wright Edelman
Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. -Oprah Winfrey
Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat. -Audre Lorde
You have a right to your thoughts and feelings. Your feelings are always valid. -Iyanla Vanzant
Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night. -Marian Wright Edelman
Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated. -Coretta Scott King
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. -Maya Angelou
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
Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. - Audre Lorde
A woman's gifts will make room for her. -Hattie McDaniel
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
Prayer begins where human capacity ends. -Marian Anderson
I am not going to die, I'm going home like a shooting star. -Sojourner Truth
We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society. -Angela Davis
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. -Alice Walker
I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly. -Oprah Winfrey
Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night. -Marian Wright Edelman
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