African American Authors Quotes

“Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.”
― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, The Prince and the Pauper

“Most people write me off when they see me.
They do not know my story.
They say I am just an African.
They judge me before they get to know me.
What they do not know is
The pride I have in the blood that runs through my veins;
The pride I have in my rich culture and the history of my people;
The pride I have in my strong family ties and the deep connection to my community;
The pride I have in the African music, African art, and African dance;
The pride I have in my name and the meaning behind it.
Just as my name has meaning, I too will live my life with meaning.
So you think I am nothing?
Don’t worry about what I am now,
For what I will be, I am gradually becoming.
I will raise my head high wherever I go
Because of my African pride,
And nobody will take that away from me.”
― idowu koyenikan, Wealth for all Africans: How Every African Can Live the Life of Their Dreams

“Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.”
― Jaachynma N.E. Agu, The Prince and the Pauper

“The South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro. And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent. Nevertheless, men strive to know.”
― W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk

“There is something immensely scary about putting yourself out there for people to love or hate you, fan or pan you, review or screw you.”
― L.V. Lewis, Fifty Shades of Jungle Fever

“Yes, a person can accept your apology and forgive you for what you’ve said, but they will never forget how you made them feel at that very moment. Words can stick in a person’s mind, heart, and spirit long after the words have been spoken. Don’t be in denial; words have GREAT power. Be wise when you speak!”
― Stephanie Lahart

“Big Ma didn't need to say any more and she didn't. T.J. was far from her favorite person and it was quite obvious that Stacey and I owed our good fortune entirely to T.J.'s obnoxious personality.”
― Mildred D. Taylor

“Put your hand over your heart and say aloud, “I am not alone.” Your ancestors walked before you and we, your sisters on this cosmic quest, walk with you.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“Such was the short bitter life of Brother Tod Clifton. Now he's in this box with the bolts tightened down. He's in the box and we're in there with him, and when I've told you this you can go. It's dark in this box and it's crowded. It has a cracked ceiling and a clogged-up toilet in the hall. It has rats and roaches, and it's far, far too expensive a dwelling. The air is bad and it'll be cold this winter. Tod Clifton is crowded and he needs the room. 'Tell them to get out of the box', that's what he would say if you could hear him. 'Tell them to get out of the box and go teach the cops to forget that rhyme. Tell them to teach them that when they call you nigger to make a rhyme with trigger it makes the gun backfire.”
― Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

“Divine manifesting is collaboration with God/dess energy to mold our lives for the highest and best good of the collective. We are all manifesting our lives, albeit unconsciously for most people.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“Goddess alchemy is learning to see through this dimension into the next and welcome in what you are seeking. Healers, priestesses, and brujas of African descent have used magic for access to healing, protection, and joy since time began.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“The most powerful ancestral or generational curse we face is our unhealed trauma.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“Remember this one thing baby girl, women don’t juggle…we diversify!”
― Iesha S. Walker, Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall…A Girl’s Got to Have Them All

“Some of us have been hiding, shrinking, betraying ourselves, faking the funk, and playing small for so long that we believe that we are small. That shrunken self is not you. That shrunken self is a persona you created to survive.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“When Africans were kidnapped, trafficked en masse and brutally dragged in chains to work camps in the “New World,” called plantations, we hid our deities and rituals in stories of saints, angels, and legendary characters. Our deities included a powerful cadre of orishas, abosom, lwas, álúsí, spirits, and god/desses. From South Africa to Sudan, Brazil to Cuba to even Indigenous Australia, we chant their names: Yemaya, Mami Wata, Atete, Iset, and Ala.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“What are you speaking over your life right now? If you’re speaking fear, desperation, or scarcity, then that is what you are calling forward. Speak love over your life. Speak abundance into your life. Speak healing.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“You are divine. You are rich. You have good juju as you have inherited the greatest inheritance there is. You have the power to shift worlds and bend them to your will. Accept your ancestral inheritance now. You are heiress to a rich heritage of divine prosperity.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“opprobrious term, employed to impose contempt upon”
― Jabari Asim, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why

“Making the nation safe for white people could be more easily accomplished with the help of a whitewashed tale of its origins.”
― Jabari Asim, The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn't, and Why

“All of your power is in the present moment. Grounding is the process that helps keep us in the present.”
― Abiola Abrams, African Goddess Initiation: Sacred Rituals for Self-Love, Prosperity, and Joy

“I wanted to belong to Iris when I didn't even belong to myself.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I did infer, however, that submitting to melancholy would undo the labors of those who had come before me, that I had an obligation to resist instead of giving in. I rose unsteadily to my feet, aware of my shackles, but determined to somehow overcome them.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Will this ever be over?" "In time. When the Thieves find something else worth stealing." "And then what?" "They'll tell the Stolen that they dreamed it all up. That the worst things never happened.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“A baby fortunate to survive long enough to acquire the gift of speech learned quickly about the world into which she was born. There was likelihood she would never have a chance to use such words as “mother” or “father.” Instead she would learn terms like “Stolen” and “Thief” right after she learned her own name. But no matter the circumstances and through a process none of us could explain, she would always remember the seven words whispered in her ear.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“I had thought of my Ancestors as ancient, with a history of torment etched on their weathered faces. But these were children, ranging in age from five harvests to fifteen, with gleaming faces and vigorous frames. I didn’t understand their youth. I understood only that they had been in the world before I came to it, and that they now belonged to some other place.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“She looked up and saw, crouching on a branch, a creature from another world.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Unwinding the white strips from our bodies, we let our sadness float to the ground. Women kicked their heels above their heads. Men twisted and flexed. In a whirl of laughter, wild notes, and hallelujahs, we shook and cried. Cried and shook. The fiddlers took up their instruments again and committed to furious bowing, sawing at the strings in a frenzy.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“He heard a furious rustling, a
disturbance in the trees. He followed Zander’s final glance and saw the angel frozen in mid-air, outside of time. Then the rapid descent.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“Have you chosen your new name?”
“I have a notion. How about you?”
“I’m thinking on it but I haven’t settled. Tell me yours.”
I reached for his hand, laced his fingers in mine. “As you said, it’s too soon,” I
told him. “Not until freedom. Then we tell.”
― Jabari Asim, Yonder

“How could you lie to me Brenda? Are you high?”
― Porsche Day, The Diary Of A Former Sex Addict