Whether they show it or not, our men are great, our men are here, our men are amazing, and our men are good! Last year I put together this article on quotes form our mothers in honor of Mothers day, so this year I most definitely wanted to post up some words of wisdom from the men in our “family”. Some of these men are literal fathers, and some are just simply positive father figures within our community, nevertheless, they all carry their own unique form of wisdom. They are articulate, handsome, suave, filled with knowledge, fighters, warriors, husbands, rebels, brothers, fathers, mentors, and role models. Ladies...here are 50 men to be inspired by! Bask in their wisdom & be inspired. Happy Fathers Day Brothers!

Bill Cosby

A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice.

Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.

The heart of marriage is memories; and if the two of you happen to have the same ones and can savor your reruns, then your marriage is a gift from the gods.

John Henrik Clarke

Religion is the organization of spirituality into something that became the hand maiden of conquerors. Nearly all religions were brought to people and imposed on people by conquerors, and used as the framework to control their minds.

Powerful people cannot afford to educate the people that they oppress, because once you are truly educated, you will not ask for power. You will take it.

My main point here is that if you are the child of God and God is a part of you, the in your imagination God suppose to look like you. And when you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people.

Jesse Jackson

Both tears and sweat are salty, but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy; sweat will get you change.

I hear that melting-pot stuff a lot, and all I can say is that we haven't melted.

Keep hope alive!

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.

Dick Gregory

And we love to dance, especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede.

I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that.

Malcolm X

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.

I

f you have no critics you'll likely have no success.

If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary.

Don’t let that man fool ya!

Martin Luther King Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

We must use time creatively.

Denzel Washington

I say luck is when an opportunity comes along and you're prepared for it.

I'd be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I'd been given. I'd be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.

If you don't trust the pilot, don't go.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don't need another plaque.

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That's a part of it.

Don Cheadle

We cannot stand here in a free society, proclaiming that we care about human life, and do nothing in the face of this, in my opinion.

W.E.B. Dubois

A little less complaint and whining, and a little more dogged work and manly striving, would do us more credit than a thousand civil rights bills.

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

But what of black women? . . . I most sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.

Now is the accepted time, not tomorrow, not some more convenient season. It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year. It is today that we fit ourselves for the greater usefulness of tomorrow. Today is the seed time, now are the hours of work, and tomorrow comes the harvest and the playtime.

Barack Obama

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.

Yes We Can!

It's about Change!

Michael Jordan

Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.

Ossie Davis

“Any form of art is a form of power; it has impact, it can affect change it can not only move us, it makes us move.”

“It's not the man, it's the plan. It's not the rap, it's the map.”

Bob Marley

“Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake Up and Live!”

“Don't worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright”

“Me only have one ambition, y'know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that's all.”

Elijah Muhammad

"The Negro wants to be everything but himself… He wants to integrate with the white man, but he cannot integrate with himself or with his own kind. The Negro wants to lose his identity because he does not know his own identity."

You will be in the public eye. Beware of them cameras. Oh, them cameras are bad as any narcotic.

Ray Charles

Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.

The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.

There's nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, ''If you believe in Me, you ain't going to have no troubles.

What is a soul? It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room.

James Brown

I used to think like Moses. That knocked me down for a couple years and put me in prison. Then I start thinking like Job. Job waited and became the wealthiest and richest man ever 'cause he believed in God.

I was stillborn. The midwives laid me aside, thought I was really gone. I laid there about an hour, and they picked me back up and tried again, 'cause my body was still warm. The Good Lord brought me back.

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.

You can't teach others if you are living the same way.

Russel Simmons

Art is a way to express yourself and through that you can escape a bad situation.

If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early. It's a step process.

Look at all the billionaires. If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people.

You know, sometimes people never get to learn how successful they could have been because they give up too easily. If I've learned one thing in all my years in the business, it's that often things don't work out the way you want at first. But that doesn't mean you should give up.

Muhammad Ali

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.

Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.

We have one life; it soon will be past; what we do for God is all that will last.

Superman don't need no seat belt.

It's the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize.

Spike Lee

Don't think that because you haven't heard from me for a while that I went to sleep. I am still here, like a spirit roaming the night. Thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

I think people who have faults are a lot more interesting than people who are perfect.

It comes down to this: black people were stripped of our identities when we were brought here, and it's been a quest since then to define who we are.

Gordon Parks

At first I wasn't sure that I had the talent, but I did know I had a fear of failure, and that fear compelled me to fight off anything that might abet it.

And now, I feel at 85, I really feel that I'm just ready to start.

Les Brown

You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life.

Begin to read a book that will help you move toward your dream.

Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality.

If you are carrying strong feelings about something that happened in your past, they may hinder your ability to live in the present.

Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.

Frederick Douglas

A man's character always takes its hue, more or less, from the form and color of things about him.

I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.

I didn't know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted.

The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion.

One and God make a majority.

Dr. Ben Carson

"Be nice to people - all people - even when you don't have to be. Everyone is important."

"Think positively. Attitude plays a tremendous role in our well being, as well as our ability to fight disease."

"God has given us more than fourteen billion cells and connections in our brain. Why would God give us such a complex organ system unless he expects us to use it?"

"Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give."

Rev. Run

Asking is the proof that you’ve conquered pride. In most cases, asking causes us to become humble. You didn’t get into the program you’re interested in? Reapply! (Remember) Ask Ask Ask! Ask God, ask people, ask whoever! Asking keeps you humble. And that’s what God wants…Ask!

"I am not cool, I am cool's inspiration."

I'm not branding. I'm branding myself as a dad and a husband, and the brand that you're looking at is brand Family Man. It's me teaching the world about the gifts that God gave me.

The wedding and the honeymoon are probably the furthest thing from marriage.

How do you recover from an extraordinary loss? Take stock of loved ones around you. Hug them, love them, and cherish them. When you appreciate the joys in your life, it makes sorrow that much easier to swallow. Every day is a new day. Hope floats, so let it rise. God is love.

Common

Hunger in they eyes, is what seems to feed me

Inside peace mixed with beast seem to breed me

Nobody believe, until I believe me

Now I'm on the rise doin business with my guys

Visions realize, music affected lives

A gift from the skies, to be recognize

I'm keeping my eyes on the people, that's the prize

Mos Def

“Focused. I'm a hustler. And my hustle is trying to figure out the best ways to do what I like without having to do much else.”

Talib Kweli

Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals.

I think its man's nature to go to war and fight.

But it becomes disrespectful when the artist's process is not respected.

You have to know when to be arrogant. You have to when to be humble. You have to know when to be hard and you have to know when to be soft.

Nelson Mandela

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

Earl Graves

We keep going back, stronger, not weaker, because we will not allow rejection to beat us down. It will only strengthen our resolve. To be successful there is no other way.

James Earl Jones

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

Your own need to be shines out of any dream or creation you imagine.

“I've learned that racism will not be taken as a given. I don't think we should ever accept it.”

Marcus Garvey

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

With confidence, you have won before you have started.

Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.

God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.

Will Smith

I try to speak my points of view about black America, and how I feel about black men and the role that black men should play in their lives with their children and in their lives with their women.

In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet. There's so much negative imagery of black fatherhood. I've got tons of friends that are doing the right thing by their kids, and doing the right thing as a father - and how come that's not as newsworthy?

Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

Sidney Portier

History passes the final judgment.

I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life.

I'll always be chasing you... Glory.

Haile Selassie

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked.

We have finished the job, what shall we do with the tools?

Hank Aaron

Guessing what the pitcher is going to throw is eighty percent of being a successful hitter. The other twenty percent is just execution.

You can only milk a cow so long, then you're left holding the pail.

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.

I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.

Desmond TuTu

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

When a pile of cups is tottering on the edge of the table and you warn that they will crash to the ground, in South Africa you are blamed when that happens.

Without forgiveness, there's no future.

Louis Farrakhan

You must recognize that the way to get the good out of your brother and your sister is not to return evil for evil.

Naturally, when one makes progressive steps, there may be some who see it as a betrayal of their goals and interests.

Jackie Robinson

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

Life is not a spectator sport. If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.

Huey P.Newton

You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can't jail the Revolution.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning. I wanted my death to be something the people could relate to, a basis for further mobilization of the community.

I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.

I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

Richard Wright

Don't leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.

Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.

James Baldwin

You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

Gregory Hines

I think everybody at some point - especially if they've been working their whole lives - should take time out and think about what they've done.

Langston Hughes

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.

Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?... Or does it explode?

Negroes - Sweet and docile, Meek, humble, and kind: Beware the day - They change their mind.

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

Tiger Woods

Green and black go well together, don't they?

If you are given a chance to be a role model, I think you should always take it because you can influence a person's life in a positive light, and that's what I want to do. That's what it's all about.

You can always become better.

Adam Powell

A man's respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck.

Unless man is committed to the belief that all mankind are his brothers, then he labors in vain and hypocritically in the vineyards of equality.

Miles Davis

Do not fear mistakes. There are none.

Don't play what's there, play what's not there.

I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning... Every day I find something creative to do with my life.

Louis Armstrong

There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.

George Washington Carver

Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

George Washington Carver

When our thoughts - which bring actions - are filled with hate against anyone, Negro or white, we are in a living hell. That is as real as hell will ever be.

Marvin Gaye

Great artists suffer for the people.

If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.

Most fear stems from sin; to limit one's sins, one must assuredly limit one's fear, thereby bringing more peace to one's spirit.

War is not the answer, because only love can conquer hate.

Tavis Smiley

“I thought our community should have a deep dialogue to make black America better. I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.”