16 Insightful Quotes From America’s Greatest Black Thinkers And Scholars

Commons
Commons

“The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”

– W. E. B. Du Bois


Presumption should never make us neglect that which appears easy to us, nor despair make us lose courage at the sight of difficulties.”

– Benjamin Banneker


“The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press.”

– Ida B. Wells


“I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.”

– Booker T. Washington


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

– Marcus Garvey


“Being oppressed means the absence of choices.”

– bell hooks


“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

– Frederick Douglas


“You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”

-Malcolm X


“We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death.”

– Angela Davis


“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

– Audre Lorde


“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Martin Luther King Jr.


“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

– Toni Morrison


“People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.”

– James Baldwin


“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”

– Cornel West


“We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.”

– Michelle Alexander


“The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates



About the author

Kovie Biakolo

Former Senior Writer & Cultural Advocate at Thought Catalog • Buy Conversations for Smart People • Connect on Twitter, Facebook, & Instagram

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