
Iyanla Vanzant
American inspirational speaker, life coach, and Yoruba priestess (an iyalawo of the Ifá tradition), one of the most influential African-American spiritual voices of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in 1953 in a Brooklyn taxi cab and surviving a childhood marked by abuse and early motherhood, she went on to become a public defender, an inner-city minister, an Oprah Winfrey Show favorite, and the host of OWN's Iyanla: Fix My Life. Her books — Acts of Faith, In the Meantime, Yesterday, I Cried, One Day My Soul Just Opened Up — have sold millions of copies and are particularly beloved in the African-American spiritual tradition for their unflinching honesty about generational trauma, self-love, and the work of healing.
quotes in library
Quotes by Iyanla Vanzant
100 quotes“Speak the truth, even when your voice shakes.”
“In every moment, you can begin again.”
“Your boundaries are sacred.”
“You are God in human form. Act like it.”
“Stop choosing the same wrong people and expecting different results.”
“Love yourself loud.”
“You don't have to be small to fit in.”
“Healing is messy. Don't expect it to be neat.”
“Trust your gut. Your gut knows.”
“You cannot give what you do not have. Fill yourself first.”
“Sister, you are not alone. The ancestors are with you.”
“Pour into your own cup until it overflows. Then give from the saucer.”
“Don't carry what is not yours to carry.”
“Speak life into your dreams. Speak life into your day.”
“Your healing is the gift you give your descendants.”
“In the silence, your truth will rise.”
“Stop asking permission to be yourself.”
“You are not too much. They are too small.”
“Let go of what was. Make room for what is becoming.”
Explore More Teachers
Discover wisdom from 500+ spiritual teachers across all traditions.
Browse All Teachers