What are some good quotes on diversity and inclusion?

Verna Myers's “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance” is the classic; we quote it from her 2016 talk to the Cleveland bar, as Cleveland.com reported it. For depth, Audre Lorde's “Difference does not have to be threatening” (1984) and Katherine W. Phillips's “Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not” (2014) both hold up well on a slide.

What are some short quotes about diversity?

Try “The highest result of education is tolerance” (Helen Keller, 1903), “Culture does not make people, people make culture” (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2012) or “The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision” (George Eliot, 1860). Every quote in our short list is 12 words or fewer.

What does unity in diversity mean?

It means a group can work as one without everyone being the same. The management thinker Mary Parker Follett put it well in 1918: “Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety.”

Did Maya Angelou say “diversity makes for a rich tapestry”?

We couldn't confirm it. It isn't on her Wikiquote page, and we couldn't trace it to her books, poems or recorded interviews, so we left it off. Wikiquote lists many other lines credited to Angelou online as misattributed.

Are there good quotes on inclusion of people with disabilities?

Yes. The disability rights activist Judith Heumann said, “disability is a family you can join at any point in your life,” and the comedian Stella Young said, “No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp.” Both came from recorded talks, and both are in our disability section.

How do you use DEI quotes at work?

Use one to open something real: a heritage month, a DEI council meeting, a new hire's first day. Pair it with a plan or a practical habit, since a quote alone changes nothing. Our DEI tip of the day has 120 small habits to pair them with.

Diversity and inclusion
Quotes

Diversity and inclusion quotes: 60 real quotes and 30 original sentences

Q: What are sentences for diversity?

Short, ready-to-use lines that say how a team treats difference, written for a values page, a job post, a welcome message, an event invite or a manager's note. We wrote the 30 on this page ourselves, so you can copy them without credit.

Quotes on diversity, inclusion, belonging and equity, plus lines we wrote, each with a copy button. Every quote checked against its source.

KraftyLab TeamUpdated Oct 202613 min read

Coworkers of different ages and backgrounds stand together chatting and smiling in a bright office atrium with plants.

Diversity and inclusion quotes end up on slides, posters and careers pages, and a lot of them carry the name of someone who never said them. These 60 were checked one by one against the speaker's book, speech, lecture or interview, or the sourced section of their Wikiquote page, with the published wording kept. Some teams want their own words instead, so we also wrote 30 sentences for diversity you can paste into a values page, a job post, a welcome message, an event invite or a manager's note. Then come ideas for using quotes at work, six meeting openers and the famous lines we left out.

Short diversity quotes for a slide or a sign

Short enough to sit under a slide title, in an email footer or as the channel topic.

Difference does not have to be threatening.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
The highest result of education is tolerance.
Helen Keller, author and activist
For the unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion.
John F. Kennedy, US president
Culture does not make people, people make culture.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novelist
A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons.
Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid archbishop
Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.
Cesar Chavez, labor organizer
Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.
Albert Einstein, physicist
The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.
George Eliot, novelist
The tough-minded are content that differences should exist. They respect differences.
Ruth Benedict, anthropologist

Quotes on diversity and culture

What different people and different cultures bring, in the words of people who lived it or studied it.

Quotes about diversity

Why different people in the room make the work better, from a president, a Nobel lecture and a researcher who studied it.

And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.
John F. Kennedy, US president
There is a growing understanding that human diversity is both the reality that makes dialogue necessary, and the very basis for that dialogue.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general
When disagreement comes from a socially different person, we are prompted to work harder. Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.
Katherine W. Phillips, organizational researcher
It is not our differences which separate women, but our reluctance to recognize those differences and to deal effectively with the distortions which have resulted from the ignoring and misnaming of those differences.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain.
Ralph Ellison, novelist
I do realize that human beings are the same everywhere; the differences are not so great.
Isabel Allende, novelist
Our world hangs like a magnificent jewel in the vastness of space. Every one of us is a part of that jewel. A facet of that jewel. And in the perspective of infinity, our differences are infinitesimal.
Fred Rogers, children's television host
The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.
Chinua Achebe, novelist

Cultural diversity quotes

Anthropologists and novelists on how culture shapes us, and how stories cross from one culture to another.

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, novelist
By the time he can talk, he is the little creature of his culture.
Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
People from different parts of the world can respond to the same story if it says something to them about their own history and their own experience.
Chinua Achebe, novelist
The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.
Toni Morrison, novelist
We recognize that we are the products of many cultures, traditions and memories; that mutual respect allows us to study and learn from other cultures; and that we gain strength by combining the foreign with the familiar.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general
Human nature is almost unbelievably malleable, responding accurately and contrastingly to contrasting cultural conditions.
Margaret Mead, anthropologist
A smile or a tear has no nationality. Joy and sorrow speak alike in all nations, and they above all the confusion of tongues proclaim the brotherhood of man.
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist and writer
Pluralist societies are not accidents of history. They are a product of enlightened education and continuous investment by governments and all of civil society in recognizing and celebrating the diversity of the world's peoples.
Aga Khan IV, philanthropist

Inclusion quotes and quotes about belonging

For the step after hiring: making sure people are heard and can be themselves. For practical habits that go with them, see our guide to building an inclusive workplace.

Quotes about inclusion

Diversity is who's in the room. Inclusion is whether they get a say. Two of these were written in 1892.

Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.
Verna Myers, inclusion strategist
When colored persons have been employed it was too often as machines or as manikins. There has been no disposition, generally, to get the black man's ideal or to let his individuality work by its own gravity.
Anna Julia Cooper, educator and author
Only the Black Woman can say ‘when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, without violence and without suing or special patronage, then and there the whole Negro race enters with me.’
Anna Julia Cooper, educator and author
Nothing neutralizes creativity quicker than tokenism, that false sense of security fed by a myth of individual solutions.
Audre Lorde, poet and essayist
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.
Nelson Mandela, South African president
No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.
Nelson Mandela, South African president
The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.
Coretta Scott King, civil rights leader
Biases are the stories we make up about people before we learn who they are.
Verna Myers, inclusion strategist
All earlier pluralist societies destroyed themselves because no one took care of the common good. They abounded in communities but could not sustain community, let alone create it.
Peter Drucker, management thinker

Quotes about belonging

For onboarding, a welcome note or the first slide of a new team's kickoff.

We have to belong to ourselves as much as we need to belong to others. Any belonging that asks us to betray ourselves is not true belonging.
Brené Brown, researcher and author
I felt like I had a right to be anywhere in this universe, that I belonged here as much as any speck of stardust, any comet, any planet.
Mae Jemison, astronaut and physician
I am an individual not as far as I am apart from, but as far as I am a part of other men.
Mary Parker Follett, management theorist
We are all one, and if we don't know it we will learn it the hard way.
Bayard Rustin, civil rights organizer
This family has no outsiders. Everyone is an insider.
Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid archbishop
It's our insides that make us who we are, that allow us to dream and wonder and feel for others. That's what's essential. That's what will always make the biggest difference in our world.
Fred Rogers, children's television host

DEI quotes on equity, allyship and disability inclusion

Fair chances, speaking up for someone else, and a workplace built for everyone.

Equity quotes

On fair chances, equal dignity and what changes when people get the same opportunity.

Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home... Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.
Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and first lady
It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
John F. Kennedy, US president
It is a trite yet urgently true observation that if America is to remain a first-class nation, it cannot have second-class citizens.
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader
Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all men.
Jane Addams, social reformer
We understand, as never before, that each of us is fully worthy of the respect and dignity essential to our common humanity.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general
In the dynamic world society which is the objective of the United Nations, all peoples must have equality and equal rights.
Ralph Bunche, diplomat
Instead of being presented with stereotypes by age, sex, color, class, or religion, children must have the opportunity to learn that within each range, some people are loathsome and some are delightful.
Margaret Mead, anthropologist
The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.
Viola Davis, actor

Unity in diversity quotes and allyship

Unity without sameness, and the habit of speaking up for someone else.

Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim. We attain unity only through variety. Differences must be integrated, not annihilated, nor absorbed.
Mary Parker Follett, management theorist
We must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader
But either we go up together, or we go down together.
Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader
For positive social change to happen we need to envision a different reality, dream new blueprints for it, formulate new strategies for coping in it.
Gloria E. Anzaldúa, writer and scholar
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel, writer and Holocaust survivor
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid archbishop
Don't allow colleagues to say offensive things without interrupting them. Intervene and be an ally. Don't laugh at offensive jokes. Be responsible for the success of at least one or maybe two people.
Verna Myers, inclusion strategist

Quotes on disability inclusion

From disability rights activists and writers, in their own words.

I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.
Stella Young, comedian and disability advocate
No amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp.
Stella Young, comedian and disability advocate
I encourage you all to recognize that disability is a family you can join at any point in your life.
Judith Heumann, disability rights activist
All people want to feel their efforts matter, and individuals with ASD are no different.
Temple Grandin, animal scientist and author
I want to live in a world where we value genuine achievement for disabled people.
Stella Young, comedian and disability advocate

30 sentences for diversity you can copy

We wrote these, so they carry no name. Each one is short enough to paste as is; swap in your own details where you see brackets.

For a values page

Plain statements a company can actually be held to.

We hire people who think differently, then make sure they're heard.
Everyone here should be able to do their best work without hiding who they are.
We judge ideas on their merits, not on who said them first or loudest.
Different backgrounds make our decisions better, so we go looking for them.
Fair pay, fair promotions and fair chances are part of how we run the business.
Belonging is something we build in small choices every day, not a statement we post once.

For a job post

Lines that tell candidates how you'll treat them, not just that you value diversity.

We welcome applicants of every background, especially people who don't see themselves in every bullet point.
If you need an accommodation at any stage of the interview, tell us and we'll arrange it.
You don't need to match every requirement to apply. If the work excites you, send your application.
Every candidate gets the same interview questions, so everyone is judged on the same things.
We list the salary range because everyone deserves to know it up front.
Flexible hours are open to caregivers and anyone who works best on a different schedule.

For a welcome message

For a new hire's first day, in the team channel or an email from their manager.

Welcome to the team. Bring your ideas, your questions and your way of seeing things.
We're glad you're here. Tell us the name you'd like us to use and how to say it.
There are no silly questions in your first month, or after it.
Every voice on this team counts, including the newest one.
Your background is part of what you bring. Share as much of it as you want to.
If something here doesn't work for you, tell us. That's how we get better.

For an event invite

Lines that tell people they're expected, and that the event was planned with them in mind.

Everyone is welcome, and every part of the event is planned so everyone can join in.
There will be vegetarian, vegan and halal options. Tell us about any other needs.
The session is captioned and recorded, so you can join live or watch later.
Come as you are. No experience needed, just curiosity.
Join us to celebrate [heritage month] and hear from colleagues who chose to share their stories.
We're running two sessions so teammates in every time zone can take part.

For a manager's note

Short things a manager can say or write that make room for more people.

Your perspective changed how I saw this. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for raising that. It's the kind of thing I need to hear.
This week I'd like someone who hasn't presented before to share our update.
If a decision affects your team, you should have a say before it's made.
Before we decide, let's hear the strongest case for the option we're about to drop.
Disagreeing with me is welcome here. It makes our work better.

How to use diversity and inclusion quotes at work

A quote opens the moment. What follows it is what people remember. Three places it works, with wording you can borrow.

Coworkers gather around an office potluck table while one explains a dish and the others listen.

To open a heritage month. Start the month with a quote from someone the month honors, one line about who they were, and what's planned. The quote gets attention; the plan gives people something to join.“Hispanic Heritage Month starts today. In 1984 the labor organizer Cesar Chavez said, ‘Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.’ Our network's first event is next Thursday, and everyone's invited.”
At a DEI council kickoff. Put one quote on the first slide that says what the group is for, then spend the meeting on what you'll do. Pick a line that's about the work, not a slogan.“Mary Parker Follett wrote in 1918: ‘Unity, not uniformity, must be our aim.’ That's our brief. We're not here to make everyone the same. We're here to make sure difference gets heard in how we hire, promote and decide.”
In onboarding. A welcome note with a quote about belonging tells a new hire what to expect. Add one concrete thing: who to ask, where the employee networks meet, how to set their name and pronouns in the tools.“Welcome aboard. Brené Brown wrote that any belonging that asks us to betray ourselves is not true belonging. Here, you don't have to. Your buddy for the first month is [name], and the employee networks are listed on the intranet.”

Pair the quote with a habit: our DEI tip of the day has 120 of them. Planning a December event? See our inclusive holiday party ideas.

Six quote-and-question meeting openers

Each pairs a quote from this page with a question we wrote. Read the quote, ask the question, and let anyone pass. Nobody should have to speak for a whole group.

Verna Myers: “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”
What makes someone feel asked to dance on this team, not just invited?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete.”
What's a single story people tend to tell about your role or your field?
Katherine W. Phillips: “Diversity jolts us into cognitive action in ways that homogeneity simply does not.”
When did a disagreement on this team lead to a better answer?
Chinua Achebe: “If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.”
When did seeing a problem from someone else's seat change your mind?
Mary Parker Follett: “I am an individual not as far as I am apart from, but as far as I am a part of other men.”
Who on another team made your work better this year?
Fred Rogers: “It's our insides that make us who we are, that allow us to dream and wonder and feel for others.”
What's something about how you work that people might not guess?

Famous diversity quotes we left out

You'll find these on most diversity quote lists. We couldn't confirm the named person said them, so they aren't on ours.

“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.” (usually credited to Maya Angelou)
It isn't on her Wikiquote page, and we couldn't trace it to any of her books, poems or recorded interviews. Wikiquote lists many lines credited to her online as misattributed.
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” (usually credited to Audre Lorde)
This is a paraphrase. What Lorde wrote, in Sister Outsider (1984), is longer and sharper, and it's in our diversity section with its page number.
“If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” (usually credited to Shirley Chisholm)
It isn't on her Wikiquote page, and we couldn't trace it to anything she wrote or said on the record. Her sourced lines are easy to find: one is on our Black History Month quotes page.
“Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.” (usually credited to Malcolm Forbes)
It isn't on his Wikiquote page, and we couldn't trace it to anything he wrote or said on the record.
“Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.” (usually credited to Stephen Covey)
It isn't on his Wikiquote page, and we couldn't find a book, page or talk where he said it.

More checked quotes: our Black History Month quotes and motivational quotes for women were verified the same way.

Run it with a host

Quotes start the conversation; a facilitated hour moves it forward. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Foundations is a 60-minute seminar on the basics, with interactive exercises and real-life examples on recognizing bias and making everyday interactions more inclusive. Allyship in the Workplace is a 60-minute session, with discussions and exercises, on recognizing privilege, advocating for underrepresented groups and taking practical steps toward inclusion. Both run live on your video call, on Zoom by default (Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request), and teams split across time zones can book two sessions. Book about 2 weeks ahead. See all our DEI workshops, or plan the year with our heritage month events.

Two hosted sessions for your team, with today's prices. Get a free quote with your date and headcount.