24+ Marian Anderson Quotes

Marian Anderson is a renowned black singer.

Anderson performed various kinds of music, ranging from opera to spirituals. Besides, she was also an important part of black people's struggle against racial prejudice.

Marian Anderson was a member of several renowned orchestras from 1925–1965. In 1939, she was refused by the Daughters of the American Revolution to perform in Constitution Hall, Washington. She has received several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Also, she was a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

This article has some of the best Marian Anderson quotes that inspire you. These quotations will help you in offering a better understanding of hope, acceptance, leadership, success, dreams, and nature.

Check out these amazing Marian Anderson quotes based on acceptance.

"As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold the person down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might."

“Sometimes racial prejudice is like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing it because the feel of it is irritating.”

“I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country.”

"I could not run away from the situation. I had become, whether I liked it or not, a symbol, representing my people. I had to appear."

"I do not have to tell you that I dearly love the Negro spirituals . They are the unburdenings of the sorrows of an entire race, which, finding scant happiness on Earth, turns to the future for its joys."

Here are some great Marian Anderson quotes on leadership.

"Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it."

“The minute a person whose word means a great deal dares to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.”

"No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise."

"If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.”

Here are some amazing Marian Anderson quotes on music.

"They are my own music. But it not for that reason that I love to sing them. I love them because they are truly spiritual in quality; they give forth the aura of faith, simplicity, humility, and hope."

"Music to me means so much, such beautiful things, and it seemed impossible that you could find people who would curb you, stop you, from doing a thing which is beautiful. I wasn't trying to sway anybody into any movements or anything of that sort, you know. I just wanted to sing and share."

“When I sing, I don’t want them to see that my face is black; I don’t want them to see that my face is white – I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.”

"A singer starts by having his instrument as a gift from God... When you have been given something in a moment of grace, it is sacrilegious to be greedy."

"Certainly, I have my feelings about conditions that affect my people. But it is not right for me to try to mimic somebody who writes, or who speaks. That is their forte. I think first of music and of being there where music is, and of music being where I am. What I had was singing, and if my career has been of some consequence, then that's my contribution."

Listed below is a list of Marian Anderson quotes about nature.

“I suppose I might insist on making issues of things. But that is not my nature, and I always bear in mind that my mission is to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.”

"None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath."

Also, check out these top Marian Anderson quotes that you should know.

"Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman."

"You lose a lot of time, hating people."

"Everyone has a gift for something, even if it is the gift of being a good friend.”

"There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the first move - and he, in turn, waits for you."

"It is my honest belief that to contribute to the betterment of something, one can do it best in the medium through which one expresses one's self most easily."

“You can’t build a chimney from the top, you know.”

"Prayer begins where human capacity ends."

“Sometimes you're overwhelmed when a thing comes, and you do not realize the magnitude of the affair at that moment. When you get away from it, you wonder, did it really happen to you.”

“When you stop having dreams and ideals--well, you might as well stop altogether.”