Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize-winning author and literary icon, gifted the world with words that continue to inspire, empower, and enlighten.
Her quotes are more than just lines—they are lessons in love, freedom, identity, and resilience.
Whether you’re a writer searching for motivation, a student looking for wisdom, or someone seeking emotional strength, Morrison’s voice offers a powerful sense of direction.
In this collection, you’ll find her most moving quotes across various themes to guide you through life’s journey.
Let these timeless words remind you of your worth, ignite your purpose, and spark your inner light.
Toni Morrison Quotes on Empowerment
- 💪 If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down
- 💪 Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined
- 💪 You are your best thing
- 💪 Make a difference about something other than yourselves
- 💪 As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think
- 💪 Don’t be afraid. Be more afraid of not doing
- 💪 Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another
- 💪 You wanna fly, you got to give up the stuff that weighs you down
- 💪 The function of freedom is to free someone else
- 💪 It’s not possible to constantly be a hero, but it is possible to remain a human
- 💪 A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves
- 💪 Power isn’t control at all—power is strength and giving that strength to others
- 💪 I tell my students, when you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else
- 💪 What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not?
- 💪 You don’t have to love me but you damn well have to respect me
Toni Morrison Quotes on Love
- ❤️ Love is never any better than the lover
- ❤️ Don’t ever think I fell for you, or fell over you. I didn’t fall. I rose
- ❤️ Anything dead coming back to life hurts
- ❤️ Love is divine only and difficult always
- ❤️ She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man
- ❤️ It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow
- ❤️ He wants to put his story next to hers
- ❤️ I did not fall in love, I rose in it
- ❤️ It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you
- ❤️ Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all
- ❤️ Some things you forget. Other things you never do
- ❤️ You are your best thing
- ❤️ Love does not come to you, it has to be inside you
- ❤️ Nothing could be counted on in a world where even when you were a solution you were a problem
- ❤️ You can’t own a human being. You can’t lose what you don’t own
Toni Morrison Quotes on Freedom
- 🕊️ The function of freedom is to free someone else
- 🕊️ Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another
- 🕊️ I am not interested in indulging myself in the usual maudlin nostalgia about the difficulties of being black
- 🕊️ All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was
- 🕊️ I don’t want to be defined by someone else
- 🕊️ The truth is always already too much
- 🕊️ Don’t ever think I fell for you or fell over you. I didn’t fall. I rose
- 🕊️ It’s not freedom unless it helps someone else be free
- 🕊️ Some things you forget. Other things you never do
- 🕊️ Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined
- 🕊️ You can’t own a human being
- 🕊️ If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it
- 🕊️ Freedom is choosing your responsibility
- 🕊️ Freedom is knowing who you are
- 🕊️ You wanna fly, you got to give up the stuff that weighs you down
Toni Morrison Quotes on Writing
- ✍️ I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it
- ✍️ If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it
- ✍️ I’m not entangled in shaping my work according to other people’s views of how I should have done it
- ✍️ Writing is really a way of thinking—not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic
- ✍️ I have never had to ask myself whether I was a writer
- ✍️ Everything I’ve ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than limit it
- ✍️ I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable
- ✍️ Make up a story. Narrative is radical, creating us at the very moment it is being created
- ✍️ The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power
- ✍️ I don’t write for white people. I don’t
- ✍️ My job is to find the truth and express it
- ✍️ I’m already discredited. So I might as well go for broke
- ✍️ I write because I have questions
- ✍️ Language alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names
- ✍️ I wanted to explore what it meant to be human, not just black
Song of Solomon Toni Morrison Quotes
- 🦋 You wanna fly, you got to give up the stuff that weighs you down
- 🦋 If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it
- 🦋 Stop picking around the edges of the world. Take advantage, and if you can’t take advantage, take disadvantage
- 🦋 Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like a queen’s dress
- 🦋 The fathers may soar, and the children may know their names
- 🦋 You can’t own a human being. You can’t lose what you don’t own
- 🦋 I wish I’d a known more people. I would of loved ‘em all
- 🦋 It’s a bad word, ‘deserve.’ It’s one of those words that nobody ought to use
- 🦋 You think because he doesn’t love you that you are worthless
- 🦋 I been hungry all my life
- 🦋 It’s a sad thing when a man gets so old he makes love to a woman’s memory
- 🦋 Love shouldn’t be about what you can get
- 🦋 When you know your name, you should hang on to it
- 🦋 Own things. And let the things you own, own other things
- 🦋 A milkman who can’t fly is not worth naming
Toni Morrison Quotes About Life
- 🌍 At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough
- 🌍 If you want to fly, you have to give up the things that weigh you down
- 🌍 The function of freedom is to free someone else
- 🌍 You are your best thing
- 🌍 What you do to children matters. And they might never forget
- 🌍 A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick
- 🌍 It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind
- 🌍 All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was
- 🌍 In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate
- 🌍 The truth is always already too much
- 🌍 If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it
- 🌍 Don’t ever think I fell for you or fell over you
- 🌍 As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think
- 🌍 Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined
- 🌍 Anything dead coming back to life hurts
Toni Morrison Quotes on Education
- 🎓 Books are a form of political action
- 🎓 I tell my students, when you get these jobs, just remember that your real job is if you are free, you need to free somebody else
- 🎓 Education is not just about information, it’s about transformation
- 🎓 Make a difference about something other than yourselves
- 🎓 Language is the measure of our lives
- 🎓 Knowledge is not power until it’s used
- 🎓 Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood
- 🎓 Truth is not always beauty, but the hunger for it is
- 🎓 Reading is an exercise in empathy
- 🎓 Books are a way to understand the human condition
- 🎓 Learning should make you uncomfortable
- 🎓 The classroom is a place for transformation
- 🎓 The future belongs to those who prepare for it today
- 🎓 Students must learn to question
- 🎓 Reading and writing are acts of courage
Toni Morrison Quotes on Life
- 🌟 You are your best thing
- 🌟 Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all
- 🌟 A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves
- 🌟 If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it
- 🌟 The function of freedom is to free someone else
- 🌟 Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined
- 🌟 Make up a story. Narrative is radical
- 🌟 The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in
- 🌟 I don’t want to be defined by someone else
- 🌟 What difference do it make if the thing you scared of is real or not
- 🌟 If you can’t imagine it, you can’t have it
- 🌟 Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine
- 🌟 Your life is already artful—waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art
- 🌟 The real hell of life is everyone has their reasons
- 🌟 In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent
Conclusion
Toni Morrison’s words transcend time, touching the soul with wisdom, strength, and profound truth.
From love and life to freedom and writing, her quotes continue to inspire generations.
Let these empowering words fuel your journey and keep you grounded in your truth.
Morrison’s legacy reminds us that through storytelling and truth-telling, we find liberation.
