10 important and inspiring quotes to know for Black History Month
EEW Magazine Online // Black History Quotes
Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a New York Democrat, announces her run for the presidency at the Community Center in Cambridge, Mass., in this Feb. 15, 1972, photo. (AP via EEW Magazine Online)
In honor of Black History Month, EEW Magazine Online has gathered 10 of the most important and inspiring quotes from African American leaders.
ON SUCCESS
“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 while trying to succeed.” —Booker T. Washington
ON MAKING HISTORY
“I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving up.” —Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
ON HATERS
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” —Coretta Scott King
ON HAVING A SEAT AT THE TABLE
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” —Shirley Chisholm
ON WHAT IS POSSIBLE
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” —Muhammad Ali
ON LIMITATIONS
“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” —Dr. Mae Jemison, first African-American female astronaut
Dr. Mae Jemison
ON KNOWING YOUR POWER
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” —Alice Walker
ON CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.” —Madam C.J. Walker
Madam C.J. Walker
ON BEING HEROIC
“True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.” —Arthur Ashe
ON DOING THE RIGHT THING
“The time is always right to do what is right.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
