Quotes and Reflections for Kwanzaa Celebrations: Kwanzaa is an annual celebration that honors the culture and traditions of people of African origin. This joyous holiday draws inspiration from time-honored African customs and symbols, many related to harvest celebrations and community ideals of shared work, purpose, creativity, possibility, faith and celebration of togetherness.
Sharing warm words, happy wishes and quotes are an important gesture of Kwanzaa. Are you looking for the right quote to share with friends during Kwanzaa Celebrations? Check out our list of Insightful quotes below:
75 Happy Kwanzaa Quotes
“The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”
– James A. Baldwin
Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Nia, Cujamaa, Kuumba, Imani, Happy Kwanzaa.”
– Unknown
“Kwanzaa is a special time to remember the ancestors, the bridge builders, and the leaders.”
– Dorothy Winbush Riley
Cross the river in a crowd and the crocodile won’t eat you.”
– African Proverb
“A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.”
-Richard Whately
“Return to old watering holes for more than water; friends and dreams are there to meet you.”
– African proverb
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
– African Proverb
“Each of us is a being in himself and a being in society, each of us needs to understand himself and understand others, take care of others and be taken care of himself.”
– Haniel Long
“A family is like a forest when you are outside it is dense, when you are inside you see that each tree has its place.”
– African Proverb
“One who eats alone cannot discuss the taste of the food with others.”
– African Proverb
“If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.”
Marian Anderson
“There is no one who became rich because he broke a holiday, no one became fat because he broke a fast.”
– Ethiopian Proverb
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
–Martin Luther King Jr.
Faith makes the discords of the present the harmonies of the future.
–Robert Collyer
We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.
–Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1940
“I must do something” always solves more problems than “Something must be done.”
–Author Unknown
The time is always right to do what is right.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.
–John Donne
Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.
–Alexander the Great
A snowflake is one of God’s most fragile creations, but look what they can do when they stick together!
–Author Unknown
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
–George Bernard Shaw
Each of us is a being in himself and a being in society, each of us needs to understand himself and understand others, take care of others and be taken care of himself.
–Haniel Long
Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
–Henry Ford
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.
–American Indian proverb
Many hands make light work.
–John Heywood
Men, like nails, lose their usefulness when they lose direction and begin to bend.
–Walter Savage Landor
The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
–Robert Byrne
[I]f you have a purpose in which you can believe, there’s no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.
–Marian Anderson
Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.
–Corrie Ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord
Faith is courage; it is creative while despair is always destructive.
–David S. Muzzey
You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known as Brotherhood, however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.
–Faith Baldwin
In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.
–Booker T. Washington
Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.
–Virginia Burden, The Process of Intuition
Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.
–Kenyan proverb
One is a member of a country, a profession, a civilization, a religion. One is not just a man.
–Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wartime Writings 1939-1944, translated from French by Norah Purcell
“Independence”… [is] middle-class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.
–G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion, 1912
Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
–Mohammed Ali
A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own good, but for neglecting his neighbor’s.
–Richard Whately
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
–Herman Melville
We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.
–Marquise de Sévigné
No man is free who is not a master of himself.
–Epictetus
Every man is the architect of his own fortune.
–Sallust
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
–Seneca
I don’t know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future.
–Ralph Abernathy
We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone… and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads form one to another that creates something.
–Sandra Day O’Connor
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.
–Henry Ford
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
–Helen Keller
We all participate in weaving the social fabric; we should therefore all participate in patching the fabric when it develops holes.
–Anne C. Weisberg
In union there is strength.
–Aesop
So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.
–Bahá’u’lláh
The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
–James Baldwin
Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.
–Mahatma Gandhi
Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.
–Rabindranath Tagore
Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.
–Victor Hugo
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
–William James
We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
–Langston Hughes
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
–African Proverb
You can work fast alone, but together you can work more. Kwanzaa tells us the importance of unity and collective work.
A perfect Kwanzaa celebration means, sharing of warm wishes, spending time with family and dinning with love ones.
“Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.”
Celebration rejuvenates us, and festival like Kwanzaa transform us. But for that, one has to celebrate the festival understanding its real meaning.
Kwanzaa reminds us of our ancestors work for us, it is a heritage we should keep with us in its purest form and pass it on to the next generation.
“Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.”
Kwanzaa is a special festival. It is the time to remember ancestors, leaders and those who made this day. It is the time to spread love and be united. Happy Kwanzaa.
“Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.”
“Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.”
“Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”
“Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.”
Happy Kwanzaa means to be united, be determined for your aim, take responsibility for collective work with creativity to change your economic position, have purpose in life with faith in God.
Kwanzaa teaches us the value of unity, being focused, creative and positive thinking, just like any other festival. But the difference is that, Kwanzaa teaches us the lesson for a week long time to leave a strong imprint.
“Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.”
The one who dines alone cannot share the taste of food with others. Kwanzaa teaches us to live together and dine together.
To become successful in life, have faith in yourself. Kwanzaa teaches us the same.
Kwanzaa is all about unity and love. In 2019 Kwanzaa, may you receive lots of love from people you care for.