19 Inspirational Ta Nehisi Coates Quotes You Must Read

1. “I am sorry that I cannot make it okay. I am sorry that I cannot save you. But not that sorry. The struggle is really all I have for you because it is the only portion of this world under your control.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

2. “I think it’s really important to be conscious of yourself and the world around you. For me, that meant reading a lot and reporting.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

3. “The essence of American racism is disrespect.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

4. “No matter what the professional talkers tell you, I never met a black boy who wanted to fail.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

5. “I just think that if one is going to preach nonviolence and one is going to advocate for nonviolence, one’s standard should be consistent.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

6. “So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

7. “It is by choice not chance…that we choose to advance, The Marshall Team; We can achieve…We will achieve.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

8. “What I want you to know is that this is not your fault, even if it is ultimately your responsibility.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

9. “You exist. You matter. You have value. You have every right to wear your hoodie, to play your music as loud as you want. You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

10. “Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a man to be a father.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

11. “It’s kind of selfish to say that you’re only going to fight for a victory that you will live to see.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

12. “The most precious thing I had then is the most precious thing I have now—my own curiosity. That is the thing I knew, even in the classroom, they could not take from me. That is the thing that buoyed me and eventually plucked me from the sea.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

13. “You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

14. “I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

15. “You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path to that. I grew up in a house where books were everywhere.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

16. “My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

17. “You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

18. “One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen’s claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

19. “I enjoy the challenge of trying to say things beautifully. The message is secondary in that sense. Obviously, I have something that I want to say that’s very, very important to me – but the process of actually crafting it is essential.” ― Ta-Nehisi Coates

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