To help celebrate Black History Month, we've collected some powerful and inspirational quotes from prominent African Americans. Here are a few of my favorite inspirational quotes:

1. "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby

2. "Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such method is love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

3. "I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin' hell, but as long as they ain't free, I ain't free." - Muhammed Ali

4. "Our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black, and white-and we're all precious in God's sight." - Jesse Jackson

5. "The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself-the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us-that's where it's at." - Jesse Owens

6. "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed." - Booker T. Washington

7. "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

8. "I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history." - Morgan Freeman

9. "We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice." - Carter Woodson

10. "Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face." - Carol Moseley-Braun

11. "Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion." - William Lloyd Garrison

12. "Black people cannot and will not become integrated into American society on any terms but those of self-determination and autonomy." - Gerda Lerner

13. "Let it [racism] be a problem to someone else… Let it drag them down. Don't use it as an excuse for your own shortcomings." - Colin Powell

14. "The only justification for ever looking down on somebody is to pick them up." - Jesse Jackson

I hope you've enjoyed these inspirational quotes.