Nikki Giovanni Quotes

78 Sourced Quotes

Mistakes are a fact of life
It is the response to error that counts.

Nikki Giovanni
If now isn't a good time for the truth I don't see when we'll get to it.

Nikki Giovanni
I wish we had been enslaved... at the same rate we are being set... free.

Nikki Giovanni
Just as nature abhors a vacuum, humans resist change. Change will occur; vacuums will be filled.

Nikki Giovanni
I used to dream militant dreams of taking over america to show these whitefolks how it should be done i used to dream radical dreams of blowing everyone away with my perceptive powers of correct analysis i even used to think that i'd be the one to stop the riot and negotiate the peace then i awoke & dug that if i dreamed natural dreams of being a natural woman doing what a woman does when she's natural i would have a revolution.

Nikki Giovanni
We are not friends
because of the laughs
we spend
but the tears
we save

Nikki Giovanni
Joy is finding a pregnant roach
and squashing it

Nikki Giovanni
The very fact... that something has
been done... over and over again...
is one reason... to change...

Nikki Giovanni
No one said a word... in 1776...
to us about Freedom

Nikki Giovanni
We love because it's the only true adventure.

Nikki Giovanni
America may not be the best nation on earth, but it has conceived loftier ideals and dreamed higher dreams than any other nation. America is a heterogeneous nation of many different people of different races, religions, and creeds. Should this experiment go forth and prosper, we will have offered humans a new way to look at life; should it fail, we will simply go the way of all failed civilizations.

Nikki Giovanni
The job of the architect becomes more difficult in this secular age. Where once he had a god to extol, he now has humans like himself; where once he had "he," he now has "she" and "they.

Nikki Giovanni
There are some things we do simply because the doing is a success.

Nikki Giovanni
I was born in the congo.
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx.
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows every one hundred years falls
into the center giving divine perfect light
I am bad.

Nikki Giovanni
I think hands must be very important...
Hands: plait hair... knead bread... spank
bottoms... wring in anguish... shake the
air in exasperation... wipe tears, sweat,
and pain from faces... are at the end
of arms which hold...

Nikki Giovanni
The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans. I say, the trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.

Nikki Giovanni
Educational progress is a national concern; education is a private one.

Nikki Giovanni
Life is a process where people mix and match, fall apart and come back together.

Nikki Giovanni
When younger, I thought one of the particulars of being "Homo sapiens" was to communicate. I have not learned not to, though I am cautious when I try.

Nikki Giovanni
If i am imprisoned in my skin let it be a dark world with a deep bass walking a witch doctor to me for spiritual consultation let my world be defined by my skin and the skin of my people for we spirit to spirit will embrace this world

Nikki Giovanni
I can walk ten paces behind a dog. It means nothing to me, but if that's what the black man needs, I'll never get far enough behind him for him to be a man. I'll never walk that slowly.

Nikki Giovanni
Ever been kidnapped by a poet if i were a poet i'd kidnap you put you in my phrases and meter....

Nikki Giovanni
I move on feeling and have learned to distrust those who don't.

Nikki Giovanni
In the name of peace
They waged the wars
ain't they got no shame.

Nikki Giovanni
There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.

Nikki Giovanni
You know a person is having a severe personality crisis if you see a high school class ring on a finger beyond the first semester in college. Male or female. It's a big sign saying nothing has mattered to my life since senior year.

Nikki Giovanni
And sometimes I sit down at my typewriter and I think not of someone cause there isn't anyone to think about and i wonder is it worth it

Nikki Giovanni
And He Said: you pretty full of yourself ain't chu
So She Replied: show me someone not full of herself
and i'll show you a hungry person.

Nikki Giovanni
The more you love someone the more he wants from you and the less you have to give since you've already given him your love.

Nikki Giovanni
Facts are only tools to gain control over yourself and other people.

Nikki Giovanni