Malcolm X was a powerful and influential civil rights leader known for his fiery rhetoric and insistence on Black self-defense differing from Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolent approach.
He faced early adversity with his father’s death and his mother’s breakdown.
As “Detroit Red” he was involved in crime before going to prison where he joined the Nation of Islam.
Later he became disillusioned with the group and after a transformative trip to Mecca founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity.
Malcolm was assassinated in 1965 and his autobiography released posthumously.
I have listed below some of the most popular quotes by Malcolm X.
Best Malcolm X Quotes
1. “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” ~ (Malcolm X).
2. “If not now then when, if not me then who?” ~ (Malcolm X).
3. “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” ~ (Malcolm X).
4. “We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.” ~ Malcolm X.
5. “They put your mind right in a bag, and take it wherever they want.” ~ Malcolm X.
6. “You and I have never seen democracy; all we’ve seen is hypocrisy.” ~ Malcolm X.
7. “Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world”. ~ Malcolm X.
8. “We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.” ~ (Malcolm X).
9. “You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.” ~ (Malcolm X).
10. “Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.” ~ (Malcolm X).
11. “So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” ~ (Malcolm X).
12. “We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.” ~ (Malcolm X).
13. “Education is our passport to the future.” ~ (Malcolm X).
14. “You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get it. Then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.” ~ (Malcolm X).
Popular Malcolm X Quotes
15. “By any means necessary.” ~ (Malcolm X).
16. “Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.” ~ (Malcolm X).
17. “I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” ~ (Malcolm X).
18. “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” ~ (Malcolm X).
19. “Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.” ~ (Malcolm X).
20. “I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading has opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” ~ (Malcolm X).
21. “Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself.” ~ (Malcolm X).
22. “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” ~ (Malcolm X).
Inspirational Malcolm X Quotes
23. “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” ~ (Malcolm X).
24. “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” ~ (Malcolm X).
25. “We can’t teach what we don’t know, and we can’t lead where we can’t go.” ~ (Malcolm X).
26. “The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world.” ~ (Malcolm X).
27. “Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.” ~ (Malcolm X).
Wise Malcolm X Quotes
28. “Allah always gives you signs, when you are with Him, that He is with you.” ~ (Malcolm X).
29. “My alma mater was books, a good library.” ~ (Malcolm X).
30. “One day, may we all meet together in the light of understanding.” ~ (Malcolm X).
31. “And just because you have colleges and universities doesn’t mean you have education.” ~ (Malcolm X).
32. “There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.” ~ (Malcolm X).
33. “I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don’t believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how to return the treatment.” ~ (Malcolm X).
34. “The mental flexibility of the wise man permits him to keep an open mind and enables him to readjust himself whenever it becomes necessary for a change.” ~ (Malcolm X).
35. “Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children.” ~ (Malcolm X).
36. “Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” ~ (Malcolm X).
37. “If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.” ~ (Malcolm X).
38. “I live like a man who’s dead already! I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything.” ~ (Malcolm X).
39. “A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can’t play the part of a wise man.” ~ (Malcolm X).
40. “The only thing power respects, is power.” ~ (Malcolm X).
41. “You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.” ~ (Malcolm X).
42. “To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.” ~ (Malcolm X).
43. “A man without any history is like a tree without roots.” ~ (Malcolm X).
44. “Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.” ~ (Malcolm X).
Famous Malcolm X Quotes
45. “The price of freedom is death.” ~ (Malcolm X).
46. “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” ~ (Malcolm X).
47. “I, for one, will join in with anyone – I don’t care what color you are – as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.” ~ (Malcolm X).
48. “The only persons who really changed history are those who changed men’s thinking about themselves.” ~ (Malcolm X).
49. “Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.” ~ (Malcolm X).
50. “Who taught you to hate yourself?” ~ (Malcolm X).
Motivational Malcolm X Quotes
51. “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.” ~ Malcolm X.
52. “If you turn the other cheek, you can be enslaved for 1,000 years.” ~ Malcolm X.
53. “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.” ~ Malcolm X.
54. “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” ~ (Malcolm X).
55. “My alma mater was books, a good library. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” ~ (Malcolm X).
56. “People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.” ~ (Malcolm X).
57. “If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” ~ (Malcolm X).