Toni Morrison Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Toni Morrison quotes, Toni Morrison sayings, and Toni Morrison proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things. Toni Morrison
Everybody gets everything handed to them. The rich inherit it. I don't mean just inheritance of money. I mean what people take for granted among the middle and upper classes, which is nepotism, the old-boy network. Toni Morrison
Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be. Toni Morrison
Sweet, crazy conversations full of half sentences, daydreams and misunderstandings more thrilling than understanding could ever be. Toni Morrison
When the little boy discovered, at four, the same thing Mr. Smith had learned earlier that only birds and airplanes could fly he lost all interest in himself. Toni Morrison
All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Toni Morrison
A woman could be cobra-thin and starving, but if she had grapefruit boobs and raccoon eyes, she was deliriously happy. Toni Morrison
The peacock jumped onto the hood of the Buick and once more spread its tail, sending the flashy Buick into oblivion. Toni Morrison
“How come it can’t fly no better than a chicken?’ Milkman asked. Toni Morrison
Too much tail. All that jewelry weighs it down. Like vanity. Can’t nobody fly with all that [stuff]. Wanna fly, you got to give up the [stuff] that weighs you down.’ Toni Morrison
The kind of clarity crazy people demand from the not-crazy. Toni Morrison
At some point in life the world's beauty is enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough Toni Morrison
A little black girl yearns for the blue eyes of a little white girl, and the horror at the heart of her yearning is exceeded only by the evil of fulfillment Toni Morrison
We die, that may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That would be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison
And she had nothing to fall back on; not maleness, not whiteness, not ladyhood, not anything. And out of profound desolation of her reality, she may very well have invented herself. Toni Morrison
If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to hold onto the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own system of repression. Toni Morrison
I don't know everything, I just do everything. Toni Morrison
Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down. Toni Morrison
Chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge—even wisdom. Toni Morrison
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough. Toni Morrison
A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double. Toni Morrison
Two parents can't raise a child any more than one. You need a whole community—everybody—to raise a child. Toni Morrison
She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. Toni Morrison
Me and you, we got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow. Toni Morrison
If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison
Poison is like the drowned; it always floats. Toni Morrison
I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, for the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people. Toni Morrison
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. Toni Morrison
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough. Toni Morrison
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Toni Morrison