Lena Horne

It's so nice to get flowers while you can still smell the fragrance.

— Lena Horne

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude…

— Lena Horne

I made a promise to myself to be kinder to other people.

— Lena Horne

You have to be taught to be second class; you're not born that way.

— Lena Horne

Nobody black or white who really believes in democracy can stand aside now; everybody's got to stand up and be counted.

— Lena Horne

I'm not a career kind of person. When I saw new music, new trends coming in, I didn't see any place for…

— Lena Horne

Malcolm X made me very strong at a time I needed to understand what I was angry about. He had peace in…

— Lena Horne

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

I learned from Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, Adelaide Hall, the Nicholas Brothers, the whole thing, the whole schmear. [The Cotton Club] was…

— Lena Horne

Count Basie isn't just a man, or even just a band. He's a way of life.

— Lena Horne

I had my schooling right there in the Cotton Club.

— Lena Horne

I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald.

— Lena Horne

After I got over the terrible pain of having something of mine taken from me, I began to think how bad everybody…

— Lena Horne

I really do hate to sing.

— Lena Horne

A little nepotism never hurt nobody, honey. If you got it, use it. Press on with it. Remind them of it.

— Lena Horne

“I disconnected myself to shield myself from people who would sway to my songs in the club and call me 'nigger' in…

— Lena Horne

Malcolm X raised my consciousness about myself and my people and other people more than any person I know. I knew him…

— Lena Horne

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;…

— Lena Horne

I found out along the way that they like you a little imperfect.

— Lena Horne

I remember the day tDr. King died. I wasn't angry at the beginning. It was like something very personal in my life…

— Lena Horne

I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had…

— Lena Horne

You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph.

— Lena Horne

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…

— Lena Horne

I was lucky, as many of my generation was, in having a man like Dr. King in our lives. He came at…

— Lena Horne

music became my refuge and then my salvation.

— Lena Horne