"Activism is my rent for living on this planet."
– Alice Walker

"Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company."
-Booker T. Washington

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination."
- Nelson Mandela

"Stop saying you have nothing - you have a chance."
- Rev. Joseph "Run" Simmons

"Sorry but if you're an American you have a debt to pay. And its not to sit back and criticize what is happening but to contribute to what should."
- Cory Booker

"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"God places the heaviest burden on those who can carry its weight."
- Reggie White

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."
-Nelson Mandela

"Knowledge is the prime need of the hour."
- Mary McCloud Bethune

"Good givers are great getters."
- Russell Simmons

"Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work."
-Rita Mae Brown

"The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
- Nelson Mandela

"Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."
- Muhammad Ali

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."
- Malcolm X

"It always seems impossible until its done."
- Nelson Mandela

"Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do best."
- Marva Collins

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong, because someday in your life, you will have been all of these."
- George Washington Carver

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts."
- Nikki Giovanni

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."
- Nelson Mandela

"If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs."
- Mary McCloud Bethune

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."
- Langston Hughes

"Strange as it seems, you make your own dreams come true."
- Chaka Khan

"It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. The ability to triumph begins with you. Always."
- Oprah Winfrey

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."
- Ralph Ellison

Black History Month Kickoff

Today marks the start of Black History Month. Let's kick it off with a quote by one of the most amazing writers of our time. I admire her spunk.

"Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."
- Zora Neale Hurston