Lena Horne famous quotes

04-22-2025

The naked female body is treated so weirdly in society. It's like people are constantly begging to see it, but once they do, someone's a hoe.
-- Lena Horne

#People #Hoe #Female
You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.
-- Lena Horne

#Class #African American #Way
I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.
-- Lena Horne

#People #Promise #Made
Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death.
-- Lena Horne

#Love #Feels #Angry
Always be smarter than the people who hire you.
-- Lena Horne

#Inspiring #Work #People
I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.
-- Lena Horne

#Littles #Way #Imperfect
My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
-- Lena Horne

#Black #Identity #Black Women
It's ill-becoming for an old broad to sing about how bad she wants it. But occasionally we do.
-- Lena Horne

#Singing #Want #Becoming
I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.
-- Lena Horne

#Acceptance #Unique #White
Every color I can think of and nationality, we were all touched by Dr. King because he made us like each other and respect each other.
-- Lena Horne

#Kings #Thinking #Color
It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.
-- Lena Horne

#Nice #Flower #Smell
As much as I try, when I open my mouth, Lena comes out, And I get so mad.
-- Lena Horne

#Mad #Trying #Mouths
It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.
-- Lena Horne

#Gratitude #Way #Bitterness
I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.
-- Lena Horne

#Want #Franklin #Ability
In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.
-- Lena Horne

#Singing #Black #Way
You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way. But the slanting process is so subtle that you frequently don't realize how you're being slanted until very late in the game.
-- Lena Horne

#Games #Class #Way
I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.
-- Lena Horne

#Credit #Firsts #Symbols
The best thing about living... Is the chance to keep on doing it!
-- Lena Horne

#Chance
I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life had been touched and finished.
-- Lena Horne

#Kings #Remember #Angry
I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at a time that we needed to take a long look at each other and see how similar we were.
-- Lena Horne

#Kings #Marijuana #Men
music became my refuge and then my salvation.
-- Lena Horne

#Music #Salvation #Music Is
After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody else must be feeling. It wasn't a nice time.
-- Lena Horne

#Love #Pain #Nice
I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.
-- Lena Horne

#Afterlife #White #Hollywood
Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.
-- Lena Horne

#Believe #White #Black
I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
-- Lena Horne

#Feels #Stills
Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him before he became Malcolm X.
-- Lena Horne

#People #Consciousness #Raised
I really do hate to sing.
-- Lena Horne

#Hate
Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in his heart. He exerted a big influence on me.
-- Lena Horne

#Strong #Heart #Influence

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