About Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio, and passed away on August 5, 2019, in New York City, was a celebrated American novelist, editor, and professor. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Morrison’s works, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Beloved” and the Nobel Prize-winning “Song of Solomon”, explore themes of race, identity, and the African American experience with unparalleled depth and lyricism.
454 Powerful Toni Morrison Quotes to Inspire You
Here are 454 Powerful quotes by Toni Morrison on various topics to inspire you.
1. “Their children were like distant but exposed wounds whose aches were no less intimate because separate from their flesh. They had looked at the world and back at their children, back at the world and back again at their children, and Sula knew that one clear young eye was all that kept the knife away from the throat’s curve.”
Toni Morrison
Family, Children, Pain, Love, Protection, Struggle
23. “Here I am not the one to throw out. No one steals my warmth and shoes because I am small. No one handles my backside. No one whinnies like sheep or goat because I drop in fear and weakness. No one screams at the sight of me. No one watches my body for how it is unseemly. With you my body is pleasure is safe is belonging. I can never not have you have me.”
Toni Morrison Body, Love, Vulnerability, Trust, Strength, Belonging
26. “An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy. No man should live without absorbing the sins of his kind, the foul air of his innocence, even if it did wilt rows of angel trumpets and cause them to fall from their vines.”
Toni Morrison Innocence, Trust, Humanity, Sin, Judgment, Philosophy
28. “Look to yourself. You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you. Seek your own land. You young and a woman and there’s serious limitation in both, but you are a person too. Don’t let Lenore or some trifling boyfriend and certainly no devil doctor decide who you are. That’s slavery. Somewhere inside you is that free person I’m talking about. Locate her and let her do some good in the world.”
Toni Morrison Self, Freedom, Identity, Women, Empowerment, Strength
30. “We can be clear. We can identify the enemy. We can begin by asking ourselves what it is right rather than what is expedient. Know the difference between fever and the disease. Between racism and greed. We can be clear and we can be careful. Careful to avoid the imprisonment of the mind, the spirit, and the will of ourselves and those among whom we live. We can be careful of tolerating second-rate goals and secondhand ideas.”
Toni Morrison Clarity, Knowledge, Society, Change, Racism, Wisdom
