“Language can never 'pin down' slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so.”

— Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize Lecture (1993)

About Toni Morrison

1931 – 2019

Nobel Prize-winning American novelist whose work explored Black American experience with unmatched depth and lyricism. Author of Beloved, Song of Solomon, and other towering works.

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More from Toni Morrison

“If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”

— Toni Morrison

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”

— Toni Morrison

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

— Toni Morrison

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

— Socrates

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

— Epictetus

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

— Epictetus

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

— William Shakespeare

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”

— Marcus Aurelius

“Language can never 'pin down' slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so.”

About Toni Morrison

More from Toni Morrison

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