80 Black Quotes About Life And Love

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published October 30, 2023

If you are looking for black quotes, look no further!

Black is one of the most striking colors, always commanding attention when present.

Let’s take a look at the fascinating color black.

What is black?

Black is an achromatic color; it does not have a hue.

Blackness results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light.

In many cultures, black symbolizes darkness.

Check out these super cool facts about the color black:

Black doesn’t feature on a traditional color wheel.
Black holes prevent anything, including light, from escaping.
In physics, black is perceived by the human eye when light is absent.

What does black represent?

Black is a powerful color.

When we think of the cosmos, we think of the void or the empty blackness of space.

All of our planets, suns, stars, and life as we know it exists within the blackness of space.

However, black is not just popular among astronomers and people who love the cosmos.

For some cultures, blackness represents the void in which all life forms.

Paradoxically, for other cultures, blackness represents death or mourning.

In both instances, life seems to begin and end with black.

Why is the color black always in style?

People who love fashion also love the color black.

Men are encouraged to have at least one black suit, while women are often told they should own at least one black dress.

There is something special about the color black.

There is truth to ideas such as “You look slimmer in black.”

Perhaps this power is why Indian actress Radhika Apte once said, “When in doubt, always wear black.”

The black color appeals to people; it is trendy in retail.

Companies like Nike and Chanel use black in their advertisements and logos.

Black can have different effects on people.

Black can evoke power, mystery, sophistication, and elegance.

At the same time, black can bring out sadness and anger in some people.

Check out our selections below for excellent content and quotes about the color black.

You will also enjoy our article on white quotes.

Short black quotes about why people love the color

Black is always a popular color among people; here are some quotes celebrating the color black.

1. “My favorite color is black.” — Johnny Depp

2. “Any color – so long as it’s black.” — Henry Ford

3. “Obviously, black matches with everything.” — Bad Bunny

4. “In the beginning, it was all black and white.” — Maureen O’Hara

5. “I am black or white. I’ll never be grey in my life.” — Diego Maradona

6. “Human nature is not black and white but black and grey.” — Graham Greene

7. “Life is not black and white; there is some gray nuance to it.” — Pilou Asbaek

8. “I see the world in black and white, and I don’t like compromising.” — Greta Thunberg

9. “Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love.” — Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

10. “Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that color never can.” — Jack Antonoff

Black quotes about life

Many say life is not just one thing or the other; these quotes explore the middle road.

11. “Black man, you are on your own.” — Steven Biko

12. “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” — Kanye West

13. “Life isn’t black or white. It’s all sorts of shades of grey.” — Nicky Morgan

14. “There’s so much grey to every story; nothing is so black and white.” — Lisa Ling

15. “Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million gray areas, don’t you find?” — Ridley Scott

16. “A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.” — Groucho Marx

17. “Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.” — Anne Morrow Lindbergh

18. “It’s about you. If you win, it’s you; if you lose, it’s you. Black and white. Nowhere to hide.” — Greg Rusedski

19. “Being glamorous is about strength and confidence. It’s black and white – dramatic. You have to be strong.” — Catherine Zeta-Jones

20. “Although humans see reality in color, for me, black and white has always been connected to the image’s deeper truth, to its most hidden meaning.” — Peter Lindbergh

Black quotes on how the color matches with everything

Black is a color that blends well with every other color.

21. “Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that black box stuff.” — Steven Wright

22. “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.” — Deng Xiaoping

23. “The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.” — Marcus Garvey

24. “I am a Republican, a black, dyed-in-the-wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.” — Frederick Douglass

25. “Black and white are the colors of photography. To me, they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected.” — Robert Frank

26. “I want to be known for what I am, black and white, because I’m proud of both. Logic I don’t see the world completely in black and white. Sometimes I do.” — Benicio Del Toro

27. “Won’t it be wonderful when black history, and native American history and Jewish history, and all of U.S. history is taught from one book? Just U.S. history.” — Maya Angelou

28. “Life is about choices. Some we regret, some were proud of. Some will haunt us forever. ‘Black Rain’ was very much about choices. The message – we are what we chose to be.” — Graham Brown

29. “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of America.” — Barack Obama

30. “There is a wide, yawning black infinity. In every direction, the extension is endless; the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, blazing, fierce; but light exists almost nowhere, and the blackness itself is also pure and blazing and fierce.” — Carl Sagan

Black quotes about strength and leadership

Black conveys strength, and many people associate the color with being powerful.

31. “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.” — H. P. Lovecraft

32. “I’ve said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.” — B. B. King

33. “Personality is the glitter that sends your little gleam across the footlights and the orchestra pit into that big black space where the audience is.” — Mae West

34. “It is not a liberty of circumstance, conceded to us alone, that we wish; it is the adoption absolute of the principle that no man, born red, black or white, can be the property of his fellow man.” — Toussaint Louverture

35. “We’re going to fight racism, not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism.” — Fred Hampton

36. “I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural, historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am, nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.” — Denzel Washington

37. “Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there’s shadow – no, not just shadow, but fullness. You’ve got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that’s real.” — Amy Grant

38. “People want to call me racist for doing the Bon Qui Qui character, and I’m like, ‘Look, Bon Qui Qui is a representation of a hood chick. That’s it.’ There are lots of hood chicks out there: some are black, some are Mexican, some are Salvadorian, and some are white.” — Anjelah Johnson

39. “‘I’ve been dealing with racism since I was a little kid! My dad’s super black, from Puerto Rico. Then my mom’s super white – she’s Puerto Rican too, but she grew up in Milwaukee. As a Latino in the U.S., I’ve seen how we are treated differently based on the color of our skin.” — Anuel AA

40. “The world is not black and white; there are lots of shades of grey. There are good things and bad things in every era, and I think it’s kind of very blindfolded to say one era was wonderful, as it was wonderful, but there were a lot of bad things as well.” — Iris Apfel

White and black quotes about togetherness in life

Black and white can make for fabulous combinations. These quotes celebrate working together.

41. “Things are not quite so simple always as black and white.” — Doris Lessing

42. “I’ll always love the time I spent making ‘Black and White.” — Peter Molyneux

43. “If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?” — John Wayne

44. “Everything is very black and white for me. I don’t really like playing mind games.” — Zayn Malik

45. “If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.” — Richard M. Nixon

46. “I am going to stop calling you a white man, and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.” — Morgan Freeman

47. “Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.” — H. L. Mencken

48. “Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side, not the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.” — Bob Marley

49. “The great thing about getting older is that you become more mellow. Things aren’t as black and white, and you become much more tolerant. You can see the good in things much more easily rather than getting enraged as you used to do when you were young.” — Maeve Binchy

50. “I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and definite, black and white, good and bad. My inability to lean into the discomfort of vulnerability limited the fullness of those important experiences that are wrought with uncertainty: Love, belonging, trust, joy, and creativity, to name a few.” — Brene Brown

Black Quotes to Celebrate Black People

51. “I’ve always maintained that black people and women suffer from a presumption of incompetence. The burdens of proof are different. It just gets so tiresome.” — Carol Moseley Braun

52. “The Righteous Brothers were purely rhythm and blues, black music.” — Bill Medley

53. “It’s barely OK for me to be dressed up as a black guy. But part of me kind of enjoys provoking people.” — Chris Lilley

54. “Any successful black person will have to face suspicion within his or her own community about his or her loyalty to other blacks.” — Randall Kennedy

55. “Black Poetry is not for Black People…it is for everybody.” — Nikki Giovanni

56. “There will never be a chanel collection without black.” — Karl Lagerfeld

57. “Better have a black face than be worried about black deeds.” — Robert Lee

58. “Black love is black wealth.” — Nikki Giovanni

59. “Black is a pearl in a woman’s eye.” — George Chapman

60. “Black consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life, the most positive call to emanate from the black world for a long time.” — Steven Biko

Black Quotes About Self Love

61. “Black is not sad… Black is poetic.” — Ann Demeulemeester

62. “Black care rarely sits behind the rider whose pace is fast enough.” — Theodore Roosevelt

63. “Black detraction will find faults where they are not.” — Philip Massinger

64. “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy- but mysterious.” — Yohji Yamamoto

65. “I like flat black. It doesn’t try to explain anything, and it’s been hip since before I was born, I guess.” ― Dennis Cooper

66. “Black makes your life so much simpler. Everything matches black, especially black.” ― Norah Ephron

67. “I do not age, I metamorphose. I am black, brown and beautiful.” ― Eduvie Donald

68. “I think all black people who smile are beautiful. You know what it took to get them there?” ― Darnell Lamont Walker

69. “Black skin absorbs more radiation than white skin.” ― Steven Magee

70. “Black is strong, powerful and beautiful.” ― Niccolo

71. “I like black, because for me it is a very happy color.” — Azzedine Alaia

72. “Every day of my life I walk with the idea I am black no matter how successful I am.” — Danny Glover

73. “I’m a black American, I am proud of my race. I am proud of who I am. I have a lot of pride and dignity.” — Michael Jackson

74. “Bald is the new black!” — Gail Porter

75. “Sometimes I worked with just a background of a rock or a tree or black velvet, and just had to imagine the whole thing.” — Fay Wray

76. “I can tell you from personal experience it gets a little tiring having to make the rounds on cable shows to explain ‘what’s up with black folks.'” — John Ridley

77. “I don’t trust white critics’ judgment about most things that deal with black life, particularly when a black person is the creator.” — Terry McMillan

78. “Don’t send me your script if you want me to play the black best friend; I just won’t do that.” — David Oyelowo

79. “Standing to America, bringing home black gold, black ivory, black seed.” — Robert Hayden

80. “Back home the black women are all beautiful.” — Amiri Baraka

The color black never goes out of style

Black has always been popular with people.

Black and white are often used to describe opposite energies.

If you have ever seen a yin-yang symbol, you notice that black and white serve as opposites.

In European history, some people associate the idea of good and evil with black and white, such as the Ages and the Enlightenment eras or nighttime versus daytime.

Black was one of the first colors used by our earliest ancestors.

When scientists explore prehistoric cave drawings, the marks and images are made of charcoal and, later, bone powder and manganese oxide.

In fact, in the world’s oldest known prehistoric cave in Lascaux, France, we find some of the oldest evidence of the color black being used to create art.