30 Ruby Dee Quotes

Ruby Dee is well known for playing Ruth Younger in both the stage and film versions of the screenplay of 'A Raisin In The Sun'.

Not only was Ruby Dee's acting as Ruth Younger a riveting one, but she is also known for her work as a journalist and screenwriter. At the same time, she was also a civil rights activist and wrote about the issues faced by African Americans in the United States.

During both her early and late career, Ruby Dee received many award nominations. She held a total of eight Emmy nominations and was also nominated to win an Oscar award. Keep reading to learn some of the things said by this actress, who appeared in 'Do The Right Thing' and 'A Raisin In The Sun'.

As an actress and journalist, Ruby Dee had a lot to say about the greatest gift in life, love. She spoke not only of love towards others but also towards oneself.

"You can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are better than others, and you can't be all you are meant to be if you think you are less than others, either."

"I think you mustn't tell your body, you mustn't tell your soul, 'I'm going to retire.' You may be changing your life emphasis, but there's still things that you have in mind to do that now seems the right time to do."

"Well, I didn't grow up with that word 'retirement' as part of my consciousness. I didn't grow up with professionals that retired. I thought retiring was when you are tired and go to bed."

"I never thought about myself as an activist when we were coming along. I love the people I love. I didn't care whether they could be a Democrat, Republican, communist... anything but a racist."

"Marriage, like love, is an aspiration. It's a process."

Ruby Dee was a well-known civil rights activist and journalist who had a lot to say about African Americans and their struggles in the United States.

"There is a place for people 65 and older that no other age group can fit. We have nothing to lose. Some of us have a couple pennies. We can go out now and really be revolutionaries."

"The Divine Impulse - it's always safe to follow it. We've got to trust it and go wherever it takes us. Especially women."

"Black women have to know the historical and everyday struggles of black men, and our men have to know the struggles of black women in America."

"Black History Month is fine, but we need more months of the year to celebrate all the people on this earth. After all, we're all creatures of the same God."

"Is it safe and sane to only have one political and economic system by which everyone in the world can live? Or can we explore and share? God never made one of anything."

"You can only appreciate freedom when you find yourself in a position to fight for someone else's freedom and not worry about your own."

"There was so much meanness in the atmosphere … but marvelous things pierce through the darkness of poverty and racism."

"You're not supposed to go into business with the sole purpose of putting your neighbor out of business. This is not the United States of Corporate America."

"Racism is a very insidious thing. It's dangerous to the psyche, to mind and body. It erodes the self-confidence. And I don't know how we get through it."

"African-Americans have a lot to teach the world."

"The nature of racism is that it grinds down the soul of the man more finely than it does the soul of the woman. When you want to conquer a people or subject it, you destroy the male component."

"I never remember, like, saying, 'Well, I'm going to belong - join the civil rights movement'."

(Ruby Dee appeared in 'Do The Right Thing'.)

Ruby Dee was an amazing film artist and was best known for her many appearances on stage and in films.

"The kind of beauty I want most is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity."

"The white actresses I have known have been allowed to do 10 times more than I shall ever do."

"I don't think the arts would have been as meaningful to me if I hadn't grown up in Harlem."

"One reason I didn't trust my writing for so long was that I always considered myself a serious dramatic actor. But people would always laugh when I shared my writing with them. It took my husband to help me see that I really am part humorist."

"I didn't have the kind of talent or personality that kept me dreaming about Hollywood. They don't hire little colored girls to do this or that. After I got that in my head, I took another direction."

"My experience for myself as a performer is not one of high expectations."

"An Oscar nomination? That would be a very satisfying thing, I'm sure. I would appreciate the thought. It would be like taking your hat off as an actor to all the people who walk through you."

"I respect the fact that a director has studied the text and the road map of work before us, the subtleties, interconnections, underpinnings... His job is to paint the entire picture and knows all the colors that have to be in it."

Ruby Dee showed great courage in being a part of the civil rights movement and was never afraid to speak the truth.

"I have always been against the gangster as hero."

"God, make me so uncomfortable that I will do the very thing I fear."

"We are all a tiger with feelings. An elephant who never forgets. We are tiger, panther, monkey - we are all of these things, all of the life rhythms."

"I think all human beings have a godlike, divine power, only most of us don't tap into it."

"I'd come from a background in New York of picketing and protesting."

"Gangsters lived in the neighborhood. They weren't apart from it. Their relationships with people were both benevolent and scary."

"Get up an hour earlier, stay up an hour later, make the time."

"The greatest gift is not being afraid to question."