30 Black Inspirational Quotes to Empower and Motivate

1. “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes

2. “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis

3. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” — Maya Angelou

4. “Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” — Coretta Scott King

5. “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” — Marcus Garvey

6. “He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.” — Muhammad Ali

7. “You wanna fly, you got to give up the thing that weighs you down.” — Toni Morrison

8. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” — Desmond Tutu

9. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela

10. “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” — Maya Angelou

11. “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated.” — Maya Angelou

12. “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” — Malcolm X

13. “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.” — Booker T. Washington

14. “Power is not given to you. You have to take it.” — Beyoncé

15. “Character, not circumstances, makes the man.” — Booker T. Washington

16. “To be young, gifted, and Black oh, what a lovely, precious dream!” — Lorraine Hansberry

17. “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” — Ida B. Wells

18. “Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” — Dr. Mae Jemison

19. “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” — Shirley Chisholm

20. “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” — W.E.B. Du Bois

21. “Do not call for Black power or green power. Call for brain power.” — Barbara Jordan

22. “It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” — Lena Horne

23. “I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it!” — Madam C.J. Walker

24. “We were not born to be what someone else says we are. We were born to be free.” — Beyoncé

25. “If you wake up deciding what you want to give versus what you’re going to get, you become a more successful person.” — Russell Simmons

26. “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” — Muhammad Ali

27. “Freedom is never given; it is won.” — A. Philip Randolph

28. “A crown, if it hurts us, is not worth wearing.” — Pearl Bailey

29. “Define yourself. Don’t be defined by others.” — Kamala Harris

30. “Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won; you earn it and win it in every generation.” — Coretta Scott King