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Explore inspirational quotes.
| The more you know... | The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are. Copy | ||
| The most important thing... | The most important thing I can tell you about aging is this: If you really feel that you want to have an off-the-shoulder blouse and some big beads and thong sandals and a dirndl skirt and a magnolia in your hair, do it. Even if you're wrinkled. Copy | ||
| The need for change... | The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind. Copy | ||
| The only thing is,... | The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can't practice any other virtues consistently. Copy | ||
| The poetry you read... | The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight. Copy | ||
| The sadness of the... | The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed. Copy | ||
| The terrorist action of... | The terrorist action of 9/11 gave birth to President Obama's entry to the White House. Not directly, but indirectly. Copy | ||
| The thing to do,... | The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think. Copy | ||
| The truth is, no... | The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free. Copy | ||
| There is a very... | There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it. Copy | ||
| There is no greater... | There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Copy | ||
| There is nothing so... | There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. Copy | ||
| There's a world of... | There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. Copy | ||
| There's something which impels... | There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know. Copy | ||
| Those of us who... | Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities. Copy | ||
| Though I do manage... | Though I do manage to mumble around in about seven or eight languages, English remains the most beautiful of languages. It will do anything. Copy | ||
| Timidity makes a person... | Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, 'I'm not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.' Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, 'Yes, I deserve it.' Copy | ||
| To take a few... | To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That's what Norman Mailer did. That's what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that's what I do - that's what I mean to do. Copy | ||
| Until blacks and whites... | Until blacks and whites see each other as brother and sister, we will not have parity. It's very clear. Copy | ||
| We allow our ignorance... | We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders. Copy | ||
| We are braver and... | We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men... We are who we are because they were who they were. It's wise to know where you come from, who called your name. Copy | ||
| We can learn to... | We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike. Copy | ||
| We have to confront... | We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay - and rise! Copy | ||
| We may encounter many... | We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated. Copy | ||
| We write for the... | We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans - because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That's why we paint, that's why we dare to love someone - because we have the impulse to explain who we are. Copy | ||
| What humility does for... | What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come but who may be here and needs me. Copy | ||
| What is a fear... | What is a fear of living? It's being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself - for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don't know what you're here to do, then just do some good. Copy | ||
| Whatever you want to... | Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it. Copy | ||
| When a person is... | When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, 'Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.' Copy | ||
| When I cook for... | When I cook for my family on Christmas, I make feijoada, a South American dish of roasted and smoked meats like ham, pork, beef, lamb, and bacon - all served with black beans and rice. It's festive but different. Copy | ||
| When I was 8... | When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today. Copy | ||
| When I write, I... | When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess. Copy | ||
| When someone shows you... | When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Copy | ||
| When the human race... | When the human race neglects its weaker members, when the family neglects its weakest one - it's the first blow in a suicidal movement. I see the neglect in cities around the country, in poor white children in West Virginia and Virginia and Kentucky - in the big cities, too, for that matter. Copy | ||
| When we give cheerfully... | When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. Copy | ||
| When younger writers and... | When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich. Copy | ||
| Whenever I want to... | Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, 'Children's Letters to God.' You can open it anywhere. One I read recently said, 'Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.' Copy | ||
| Whenever I'm around some... | Whenever I'm around some who is modest, I think, 'Run like hell and all of fire.' You don't want modesty, you want humility. Copy | ||
| Whenever something went wrong... | Whenever something went wrong when I was young - if I had a pimple or if my hair broke - my mom would say, 'Sister mine, I'm going to make you some soup.' And I really thought the soup would make my pimple go away or my hair stronger. Copy | ||
| While I know myself... | While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation. Copy | ||
| While the rest of... | While the rest of the world has been improving technology, Ghana has been improving the quality of man's humanity to man. Copy | ||
| Won't it be wonderful... | Won't it be wonderful when black history and native American history and Jewish history and all of U.S. history is taught from one book. Just U.S. history. Copy | ||
| Words mean more than... | Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning. Copy | ||
| Writing and cookery are... | Writing and cookery are just two different means of communication. Copy | ||
| You are the sum... | You are the sum total of everything you've ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it's all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive. Copy | ||
| You can't forgive without... | You can't forgive without loving. And I don't mean sentimentality. I don't mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, 'I forgive. I'm finished with it.' Copy | ||
| You have to develop... | You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, 'I'm a representative.' Copy | ||
| You may not control... | You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Copy | ||
| You may write me... | You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise. Copy |
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