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African-American Wisdom
Compiled by Quinn Eli
Courage Books
ISBN 0-7624-1623-8
Published November 2003 - Hardcover - 128 pages - $19.98

This is just the most gorgeous book I've seen in a long while.  Exquisitely put together with sayings and proverbs and artwork, this is a wonderful expression of both past and present prominent African-Americans.  This is the voice of a People as they express their advice and vividly paint their pictures.  The book is divided into Wisdom, Identity, Achievement, Humanity, and Hope.  Things we all need to nurture and develop in order to be better people.  I was particularly struck by "A man without knowledge of himself and his heritage is like a tree without roots" by Dick Gregory; "Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it" by Bill Cosby, and "One of the things I learnt when I was negotiating was that until I changed myself I could not change others" by Nelson Mandela.  Other contributors include Maya Angelou, Jesse Owens, Alice Childress, George Foreman, and Leontyne Price.  I love that you can open this book on any given page and be moved.  I also adore the paintings on pages 8 (My Angel by Michael Escoffery) and 51 (Purple Emperor by Eric Pryor), which kind of jumped out at me.
Conclusion - A wondrous book and it could happily live in anyone's home.  A book to be treasured.