Black Motivational Quotes

• You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

  Maya Angelou

  Moving On, Spiritual, Strong Women

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from May 01, 2009

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

  Michael Jordan

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

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

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

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Inspiring, Happiness, Success

  96 Copy quote
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  Every great dream begins with a dreamer.

  Harriet Tubman

  Inspiring, Dream, Passion

  593 Copy quote
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  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

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

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

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• The past has no power over the present moment.

  Eckhart Tolle

  Positive, Wisdom, Philosophical

  Twitter post from Jun 2, 2014

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• The potential for greatness lives within us all.

  Wilma Rudolph

  Inspirational Sports, Athlete, Greatness

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

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  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

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  FaceBook post by Maya Angelou from Mar 15, 2014

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• Life is short, and it is up to you to make it sweet

  Sarah Louise Delany

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

  Sarah Louise Delany, Annie Elizabeth Delany, Amy Hill Hearth (1993). “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years”, p.214, Kodansha America

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• Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Motivational, Inspiring

  115 Copy quote

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

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Positive, Happiness

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself.

  Alice Walker

  Happiness, Success, Being Happy

  102 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Strength, Success

  "The Cancer Journals". Book by Audre Lorde, 1980.

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  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

  Inspirational, Motivational, Running

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• 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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• Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  121 Copy quote

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

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Twitter post from Jan 15, 2017

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  You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.

  Josephine Baker

  Inspirational, Happiness, Success

  "Hollywood Who's Who Marched With King in '63" by Carl M. Cannon, www.realclearpolitics.com. August 29, 2013.

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  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

  Inspirational, Positive, Inspiring

  Rosa Parks, Gregory J. Reed (1994). “Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope, and the Heart of a Woman who Changed a Nation”, Zondervan

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  No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

  Alice Walker

  Friendship, Fake Friends, Memorable

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Alice Walker Collection: Non-Fiction”, p.17, Hachette UK

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• No person has the right to rain on your dreams.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Dream

  Marian Wright Edelman (2013). “The Measure of our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours”, p.29, Beacon Press

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

  Lou Holtz

  Inspirational, Sports, Attitude

  61 Copy quote

• I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

  June Jordan

  Life, Happiness, Success

  1978 Address to Black Writers Conference, Howard University. Collected as 'Where Is the Love?' in Moving Towards Home (1989).

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• Self-esteem means knowing you are the dream.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Inspirational, Happiness, Inspiring

  8 Copy quote

• If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

  Nikki Giovanni

  Happiness, Inspiring, Success

  10 Copy quote