80 Black and White Quotes and Sayings to Inspire You

Black and white is a classic contrast used extensively in art, photography and design, influences our life and thought processes in profound ways.

This duo, initially appreciated through early films and television before the advent of color, continues to be revered for its aesthetic and emotional depth.

Black and white films and photography allow for a unique, imaginative interaction, enabling viewers to paint their own colors emotionally.

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Moreover, this color combination also shapes our perception, often leading to a binary way of thinking known as ‘black and white thinking.’

While this perspective might seem limiting, it can occasionally be necessary. The powerful balance between black and white infuses tranquility into life.

Inspirational black and white quotes further explore these aspects, reminding us that life, much like photography, captures the beauty in various shades of gray.


Top 10 Black and White Quotes

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Human nature is not black and white but black and grey. ~ Graham Greene.

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

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Don’t ever let the light of your soul dim, even if the world seems black and white. ~ Tilicia Haridat.

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Life isn’t black and white, so don’t hate the criminal, hate the crime. ~ Aly Johnson.

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Black and white creates a strange dreamscape that color never can. ~ Jack Antonoff.

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There’s so much grey to every story; nothing is so black and white. ~ Lisa Ling.

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I don’t look at things in black and white. There are big gray areas. There’s a lot of slippage. ~ Mark Bradford.

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Mortals. Everything is so black and white to you. ~ Kami Garcia.

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Life is in color, but black and white is more realistic. ~ Samuel Fuller.

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Life isn’t always black and white. You’re not always sure you’re right. At least I’m not. ~ Brad Paisley.

Best Black and White Quotes

I really see food as subjective. It’s a creative outlet. It’s something that you do for fun. It’s a gray area. It’s not black and white or right and wrong. ~ Graham Elliot.

Things in law tend to be black and white. But we all know that some people are a little bit guilty, while other people are guilty as hell. ~ Marie Louise De La Ramee.

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If you look beyond the lies, then you will see the truth. Remember: Just because it’s black and white, doesn’t automatically make it a zebra. ~ Anthony T. Hincks.

Any time you stop looking at evil as a black and white thing, it’s helpful. So the fact that there won’t be any obligatory Islamic terrorist stereotypes in movies anymore, that’d be helpful. ~ John Cusack.

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.

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I don’t think anyone is black and white and I think we change our minds and our attitudes about certain things as we grow to our maturity. ~ Giancarlo Esposito.

The world isn’t black and white. No one does pure good or pure bad. It’s all gray. Therefore, no one is better than anyone else. Knowing only gray, you conclude that all grays are the same shade. You mock the simplicity of the two-color view, yet you replace it with a one-color view. ~ Marc Stiegler.

You know, one of the things I like about this world, or at least I like about the way we’re presenting this world, is these issues are terribly complicated, not nearly as black and white as we’re led to believe. ~ Aaron Sorkin.

When I was young, I had a very clear point of view on things in life, on moral questions. There was a black and white viewpoint on my world. As I’ve gotten older, I see the grey areas appear. ~ Joel Edgerton.

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There are infinite shades of grey. Writing often appears so black and white. ~ Rebecca Solnit.

The way I was brought up by my parents and guided through my football life by the influences of various managers means that in some ways I am black and white. ~ Stuart Pearce.

We’re all complex creatures, and we shouldn’t have to pick one thing to be passionate about. Life isn’t black and white, so we shouldn’t live that way. ~ Cassadee Pope.

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Black and white is salt and pepper of colors, for life tastes bland without them. ~ Vikrmn.

I wanted to be Amish when I was a kid. You just wear black and white, what could be better? One less thing to worry about. ~ Anderson Cooper.

War’s not black and white; it’s gray. If you don’t fight in the gray area, you’re going to lose. ~ Marcus Luttrell.

Famous Black and White Quotes

We were living in a tumultuous time when the world was upside down. Freeman produced a show that was black and white, the good guys versus the bad guys. ~ James MacArthur.

Morality: The theory that every human act must either be right or wrong, and that 99% of them are wrong. ~ Henry Louis Mencken.

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Nothing is ever black and white. You should know that by now. It’s all how you survive the grey. ~ Pepper Winters.

When you’re the victim of the behavior, it’s black and white; when you’re the perpetrator, there are a million shades of gray. ~ Laura Schlessinger.

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This party is old and uninviting, participants all in black and white, you enter in full-blown Technicolor. ~ Brandon Boyd.

The natural response of the old timers is to build a strong moral wall against the outside. This is where the world starts to be painted in black and white, saints inside, and sinners outside the wall. ~ Mary Douglas.

Choices of right or wrong are not presented to you in black and white. If they were, I’m sure most people would choose white. ~ Bethany McLean.

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I don’t see the world completely in black and white. Sometimes I do. ~ Benicio Del Toro.

When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls. ~ Ted Grant.

To see in color is a delight for the eye but to see in black and white is a delight for the soul. ~ Andri Cauldwell.

Also Read: Color Quotes to Inspire and Energize Your Life and Happiness Quotes to Brighten Your Mood

Profound Black and White Quotes

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It’s because I know that life is really black and white that I miss my life of colors. ~ Anthony T. Hincks.

My characters make incomprehensible decisions until you stand in their shoes. Then it makes more sense. Life is very rarely black and white, and most people are trying to do their best. I try not to judge. ~ Jojo Moyes.

Black and white is abstract; color is not. Looking at a black and white photograph, you are already looking at a strange world. ~ Joel Sternfeld.

We don’t live in a world that’s black and white. ~ Shannon Elizabeth.

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Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive. ~ Eliott Erwitt.

It’s good to play something that’s black and white, and a guy that sees right and wrong. I’ve never played a character like that. ~ David Lyons.

As I’ve said repeatedly, Republicans are very good at describing things in black and white; Democrats are very good at describing the eleven shades of gray. ~ Joseph C. Wilson.

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I think if you live in a black-and-white world, you’re gonna suffer a lot. I used to be like that. But I don’t believe that anymore. ~ Bradley Cooper.

Black and white thinking limits understanding and feedback, two necessary ingredients for successful resolution in creative conflict and successful understanding. ~ David W. Earle.

The ignorance of the world often makes people believe that life should be black and white, that you must choose sides. And so the world of colorful gradients goes unadmired. ~ A.J. Darkholme.

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Everything’s not black and white. We choose to make bad decisions or not. ~ Will Arnett.

That’s why for Zakk Wylde’s ‘Black Label Society,’ the colors are black and white. There are no gray issues. Life is black and it’s white. There’s no in-between. ~ Zakk Wylde.

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

We’re so quick to go to make things black and white, and to put things in their box. But everything is this mixture, and that’s what this world is, is this blend of different things. ~ Matisyahu.

The choice in politics isn’t usually between black and white. It’s between two horrible shades of gray. ~ Lord Thorneycroft.

So, I still seized the power, but I felt that if I officially made myself the boss, in black and white, it would be too intimidating for the other producers and the other men who worked on the show. In other words, I had the power, but I gave them the title. ~ Marlo Thomas.

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Life is not black and white; there is some gray nuance to it. ~ Pilou Asbaek

I believe very strongly that when it comes to desire, when it comes to attraction, that things are never black and white, things are very much shades of grey. ~ Brian Molko.

Life is about the gray areas. Things are seldom black and white, even when we wish they were and think they should be, and I like exploring this nuanced terrain. ~ Emily Giffin.

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In tragedy, it’s hard to find a good resolution; it’s not black and white: it’s a big fog of gray. ~ Paul Dano.

I’m a multi-faceted woman and person, like all women are, there’s no black and white. We have shades of grey in the middle. And even many more colors that other people don’t see. ~ Shakira.

Good Black and White Quotes

Most kids are smarter than most grown-ups. Kids see the world in black and white. They look through all the garbage and see a world run by fools and dullards and lazy people. And there’s nothing they can do about it because they have no power. ~ Dav Pilkey.

Being glamorous is about strength and confidence. It’s black and white. Dramatic. You have to be strong. ~ Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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In the beginning, it was all black and white. ~ Maureen O’Hara.

It’s not hard to get your way when it’s your way or the highway. People either follow suit or they’re not around. I don’t really like the sound of that, ’cause that sounds like a temper tantrum. I’m just very black and white when it comes to my business. There’s really no gray area. ~ Nicki Minaj.

I think it’s because it was an emotional story, and emotions come through much stronger in black and white. Colour is distracting in a way, it pleases the eye but it doesn’t necessarily reach the heart. ~ Kim Hunter.

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The truth never had any shades of grey, there was always a discernible line between black and white. ~ Kenneth Eade.

It is not that Shakespeare’s art is in technicolor and fancy, and that real life is black and white and tedious. The life that Shakespeare was living was the only life he had, and he had to use it to create what he was doing. ~ Stephen Greenblatt.

When we don’t have information, we go to the simplest outlook, to black and white. But then we have to lie to ourselves. Black is never as black as you’re painting it and white is never as white. ~ Patricia Sun.

Insightful Black and White Quotes

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.

The most colorful thing in the world is black and white, it contains all colors and at the same time excludes all. ~ Vikrmn.

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Things are always either black or white. The grey in between is only a confusion. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova.

I don’t know why we work, my husband and I. We just do. We are black and white, yin and yang. ~ Heidi Klum.

I’m very black and white about what I like or don’t like, and I’ve always been that way. ~ Ryan Murphy.

For grey matter, there is no black and white. If you think in black and white, then you do not use enough brain functions. ~ Petek Kabakci.

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

Even when your life is full of color, you still need to be reminded that things come in black and white. ~ Anthony T. Hincks.

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It’s really rare in life that a situation is as black and white as we tend to paint it. ~ Aesop Rock.

Black and White Quotes about Photography

I prefer black and white and portrait photography. I like old, you know, interesting faces, so I think black and white brings out the contrast. ~ Brooklyn Beckham.

With black and white photography, what you have to say counts more than the way you say it. ~ Gian Marco Marano.

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Black and white photography erases time from the equation. ~ Jason Peterson.

Black and white means photography to me. It’s much easier to take a good color photograph, but you can get more drama into a black and white one. ~ Astrid Kirchherr.

Black and white photography has the potential to make any photographer a better photographer. ~ Rob Sheppard.


So these were the 80 quotes about Black and White.

If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other popular blog posts on the topics of Softball quotes and Angel quotes.

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Chandan Negi
Chandan Negi

I’m the Founder of Internet Pillar - I love sharing quotes and motivational content to inspire and motivate people - #quotes #motivation #internetpillar