African American Quotes - Page 16

• I'm a lover not a fighter.

  Michael Jackson

  Love, Romantic, Basketball

  Song: The Girl Is Mine W Paul Mccartney, Album: Thriller, 1982

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• Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Love, Inspirational, Marriage

  120 Copy quote

• When you know my love, my love will warm you.

  Ruby Dee

  Love, Romantic, Loving Someone

  27 Copy quote
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  My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  Twitter post from Aug 19, 2015

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• One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Religious, Responsibility

  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.60, Beacon Press

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• Charity is no substitute for justice. If we never challenge a social order that allows some to accumulate wealth--even if they decide to help the less fortunate--while others are short-changed, then even acts of kindness end up supporting unjust arrangements. We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.

  Michael Eric Dyson

  Kindness, Order, Justice

  "Come Hell or High Water". Book by Michael Eric Dyson, www.today.com. 2006.

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  I feel safe even in the midst of my enemies; for the truth is powerful and will prevail.

  Sojourner Truth

  Inspirational, Truth, Powerful

  "Narrative of Sojourner Truth".

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• Unhappiness does not come from the way things are, but from the difference between how things are and how we think they should be

  Creflo A. Dollar

  Sadness, Thinking, Differences

  219 Copy quote

• We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Brother, Yoga

  29 Copy quote

• ..we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.

  Paul Laurence Dunbar

  Smile, Lying, Eye

  1895 'We Wear the Mask', stanza 1.

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• Your calling isn’t something that somebody can tell you about. It’s what you feel. It is the thing that gives you juice. The thing that you are supposed to do. And nobody can tell you what that is. You know it inside yourself.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Believe In Yourself, Giving

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Life, Success

  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”

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• I think that is what we do by preserving and telling our stories. If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It's important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change. So, the kind of precious memories about being black for my generation won't exist for my kids' and grandkids' generations unless we preserve them through fiction, through film, through comic books, and every other form of media we can possibly utilize to perpetuate the story of the great African-American people.

  Henry Louis Gates

  Memories, Book, Mean

  Source: pittsburghurbanmedia.com

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• Always focus on your effort, instead of the results of that effort.

  Russell Simmons

  Work, Effort, Focus

  Twitter post from Dec 15, 2016

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• Listen to yourself, not the noise of the world. Only you know what is right for you.

  Leon Brown

  Life, Baseball, Knowing

  50 Copy quote

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

  Carol Moseley Braun

  Inspiring, Being Yourself, Freedom

  82 Copy quote

• I've never understood people who say they're not a practicing Jew. You never hear a black guy say he's not a practicing African-American. What does it even mean?

  Gilbert Gottfried

  Mean, People, Guy

  Gilbert Gottfried (2011). “Rubber Balls and Liquor”, p.19, Macmillan

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• Nobody's free until everybody's free.

  Fannie Lou Hamer

  Inspiring, Peace, Freedom

  "Nobody's free until everybody's free" by Donna Brazile, www.cnn.com. August 25, 2014.

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• If youre going to play the game properly, youd better know every rule.

  Barbara Jordan

  Games, Play, Political

  11 Copy quote

• There will always be some curve balls in your life. Teach your children to thrive in that adversity.

  Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe

  Children, Adversity, Curves

  7 Copy quote

• It's just a fact that if you're a young African-American man and you do the same thing as a young white man, you are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted, and incarcerated. So we've got to address the systemic racism in our criminal justice system.

  Hillary Clinton

  Men, White Man, Racism

  "Transcript of the First Debate". www.nytimes.com. September 27, 2016.

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• Some say we are responsible for those we love. Others know we are responsible for those who love us.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Love, Responsible, Knows

  Nikki Giovanni (1975). “The women and the men”, William Morrow &Company

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• Affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America, because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids aren't going to college.

  Barack Obama

  School, Kids, College

  "Late Edition" with Wolf Blitzer, edition.cnn.com. July 27, 2008.

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• How is this any different than the big boat argument of people when it came to African-Americans after the Civil War, decided, 'Put them on a boat and send them back where they came from?' You know, he says it in polite language, but that's what Romney's been saying, 'Get home where you came from, start all over again.'

  Chris Matthews

  War, Home, People

  4 Copy quote

• An environmental revolution is taking shape in the United States. This revolution has touched communities of color from New York to California and from Florida to Alaska - anywhere where African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans live and comprise a majority of the population. Collectively, these Americans represent the fastest growing segment of the population in the United States. They are also the groups most at risk from environmental problems.

  Robert D Bullard

  New York, Native American, Alaska

  15 Copy quote