We’ve done our best to find a quote by an African American to touch on each of Kwanzaa‘s core principles. Bahá’u'lláh is clearly not African American, but it’s such a fantastic quote we made that one exception for the quote on unity:

Umoja (Unity)
So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth.
- Bahá’u'lláh

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
Self-determination has to mean that the leader is your individual gut, and heart, and mind or we’re talking about power, again, and its rather well-known impurities. Who is really going to care whether you live or die and who is going to know the most intimate motivation for your laughter and your tears is the only person to be trusted to speak for you and to decide what you will or will not do.
- June Jordan

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.
- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
We have become ninety-nine percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.
- George Washington Carver

Nia (Purpose)
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.
- Marcus Garvey

Kuumba (Creativity)
Never, never rest contented with any circle of ideas, but always be certain that a wider one is still possible.
- Pearl Bailey

Imani (Faith)
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr