Inspire and educate your team with these Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) History Month quotes for work in 2023.
In this list, you’ll find 45 quotes from AAPI leaders, authors, musicians, activists, business leaders, athletes, and more.
As a result, your team can start each day of AAPI History Month 2023 with a thought-provoking or encouraging quote. Plus, read on for more ideas and activities to honor AAPI History Month together!
AAPI History Month Quotes for Work 2023 – This Guide Includes:
- What is AAPI History Month?
- How to share AAPI History Month quotes with your team
- AAPI History Month quotes for work 2023
- AAPI History Month quotes to inspire your team
- AAPI History Month quotes about social justice, success, identity, business, and more
- Additional 11+ ideas to celebrate AAPI History Month 2023
In this list, you’ll find:
- AAPI History Month quotes for work 2023
- Quotes on a wide variety of topics, to inspire everyone on your team
- Noteworthy quotes from Asian inventors, authors, and leaders
- Ways to celebrate AAPI History Month at work
What is AAPI History Month?
AAPI History Month is a month to celebrate the history and influence of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans. Additionally, this is a time to recognize the unjust treatment of Asian immigrants in the United States throughout history as well as the anti-Asian hate that persists today in America.
With this in mind, AAPI History Month is an opportune time to demonstrate your company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Utilize AAPI History Month as a time for your team to learn and grow together through meaningful conversation and action.
Honor the annual occasion with a team-building activity, a thought-provoking dialogue, or an experiential social justice project.
When is AAPI History Month?
AAPI History Month 2023 will take place in May 2023.
How can I celebrate AAPI History Month at Work?
We wrote a blog post on this exact topic! Read the guide: 12+ AAPI Heritage Month Activities for 2023. Additionally, Unexpected Virtual Tours offers an immersive AAPI History Month team building experience for remote teams. Learn more and book your spot – offered for a limited time during the month of May!
How to Share AAPI History Month Quotes with Your Team
Send a Daily Email
Each morning of AAPI History Month, you can send your team an email with one of the quotes from this list. Everyone will start their day feeling inspired and energized.
To deepen the connection with this activity, encourage employees to “reply all” to quotes that resonate with them. Team members can share their thoughts, or offer background information they have on the quote’s author.
Another idea is to assign other people on your team to take turns sharing quotes each day. This will ensure team engagement all month long. Simply have everyone pick a quote by an AAPI author, leader, athlete, or historical figure and share their words as well as some information about their life and impact. Be sure to communicate in advance which day of the month each employee should share.
Start a Slack Channel
Create a #aapihistorymonth Slack channel to inspire connection, dialogue, and insight on your team. In the chat, you can share quotes along with miscellaneous AAPI History Month trivia or history. Furthermore, a Slack channel is a great place to involve everyone on your team in the conversation and encourage their own ideas and reactions.
With endless discussion topics, engage your team with a variety of APPI history and influences along with your quotes.
AAPI Month discussion topics:
- Japanese immigrants’ role in the building of the transcontinental railroad
- Asian and Pacific Islander representation in media
- Chinese immigration to the west coast during the California Gold Rush
- Hawaiian and Pacific Islander influence during World War II
- South Asian people’s influence on public law and anti-hate laws
- Native Hawaiian and Pacific people’s influence on social and climate justice movements
Begin Team Meetings with a Quote
Incorporate AAPI History Month into your virtual team meetings. To do this, start your departmental meetings with an AAPI History Month quote from this list highlighting someone of Asian descent. Dedicate the first section of the meeting to going around and hearing everyone’s reflections about the quote.
Furthermore, delve into an APPI History Month topic together as a team. You can take turns each preparing a mini presentation on an AAPI History Month topic of your choice to start off meetings. Everyone will learn something new together while honoring this occasion. Plus, this activity will encourage teamwork and communication among your employees!
AAPI History Month Quotes for Work
AAPI History Month Quotes About the Power of Identity
1. “Good things will come from self-expression.”
– John Cho
2. “I’m so proud to be an Asian and just knowing that if we think of something, we’re gonna have the opportunity to be the best version of ourselves and be the best.”
– Liu Yifei
3. “I am what I talk about in my music. I am Pinay, I’m powerful, I’m fearless, I’m unfiltered. And I like to hope that there’s young women out there who feel the same way. Or even if they don’t feel the same way, I hope to inspire young women out there to want to use their voice, to claim who they are and to embrace their identity.”
– Ruby Ibarra
Quotes About Success for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month
4. “Success isn’t about the end result, it’s about what you learn along the way.”
– Vera Wang
5. “I always try to start out with some type of goal. Then I work backward and think of what I need to do to get there, and give myself smaller goals that are more immediate.”
– Kristi Yamaguchi
6. “Success is a collection of problems solved.”
– I.M. Pei
7. “Do not be bound by this age; aim to create a new age that will delight people throughout the world.”
– Masayoshi Son
8. “Choose the positive. You have choice, you are the master of your attitude, choose the positive, the constructive. Optimism is a faith that leads to success.”
– Bruce Lee
AAPI Heritage Month Quotes on Courage, Persistence, and Determination
9. “Winning is not always the barometer of getting better.”
– Tiger Woods
10. “Life isn’t perfect, any failures you have are actually learning moments. They teach us how to grow and evolve.”
– Phillipa Soo
11. “I intend to live life, not just exist.”
– George Takei
12. “The pursuit of excellence is a continuous process through life. Enjoy the pursuit.”
– Elaine Chao
13. “The harder the work, the greater satisfaction in accomplishing it.”
– Anna May Wong
AAPI Heritage Month Quotes About Personal Development & Growth
14. “Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.”
– Ang Lee
15. “Life is not what you alone make it. Life is the input of everyone who touched your life and every experience that entered it. We are all part of one another.”
– Yuri Kochiyama
16. “In a time of destruction, create something.”
– Maxine Hong Kingston
17. “I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard. But I had to let go. And I learned that when you not only let go, but open your arms wide and learn the lessons, that an experience — no matter how bad — can teach you. That’s when you rise.”
– Ann Curry
18. “Being a fish out of water is tough, but that’s how you evolve.”
– Kumail Nanjiani
19. “The things that go unsaid are often the things that eat at you.”
– Celeste Ng
20. “Anger can teach us forgiveness, hate can teach us love, and war can teach us peace.”
– Le Ly Hayslip
21. “The one who wins all the time is great and powerful, but the one who has been trampled on and fallen is who I admire most.”
– Michelle Kwan
AAPI Heritage Month Quotes About Justice & Civil Rights
22. “No one is truly equal and free until everyone is equal and free.”
– Helen Zia
23. “Our ultimate objective in learning about anything is to try to create and develop a more just society.”
– Yuri Kochiyama
24. “For no nation can ever make real and lasting progress in civilization unless its women are following close to its men if not actually abreast with them.”
– Dr. Mabel Ping Hua Lee
25. “To live an ethical life is to be held accountable for history.”
– Cathy Park Hong
26. “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”
– Fred Korematsu
27. “We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences … to make sure that others … do not have to suffer the same discrimination.”
– Patsy Mink
AAPI Heritage Month Quotes About Being Brave
28. “Actually being able to exercise your own choice can bring about greater opportunity. I think it’s just as important what you say no to as what you say yes to.“
– Sandra Oh
29. “There have been moments where I didn’t say things, and I always felt like I should have said something. But the times that I did speak up and tried to do something, to the best of my ability, those I think were the things I could say I’m proud of.”
– Helen Zia
30. “A single seed can turn into a forest. A single heart can transform a nation”
– Bryan Thao Worra
31. “If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.”
– Amy Tan
Asian American Quotes About Visibility & Owning Your Culture
32. “[It’s our job,] from the littlest person to the oldest person everywhere, to say, ‘We treasure this, this is our home, this is what gives us sustenance, this is what gives us meaning.'”
– Yo-Yo Ma
33. “The power of visibility can never be underestimated.”
– Margaret Cho
34. “I need to talk about Chinese culture. We have deep, strong philosophy and culture. I want to share some information, tell the worldwide audience.”
– Jet Li
35. “A lot of times, people think of Asian culture as some mythical world instead of modern people with modern occupations with modern problems, modern tools. Like, we’re not all just talking Taoism and kung fu – some people are just trying to get over their breakup with their boyfriend, and they’re Facebook-stalking.”
– Constance Wu
36. “Chinese culture has a lot of virtues that are tremendously valuable to not only us as Asian-Americans, but also the world in general.”
– Martin Yan
37. “My heritage is something that I have always been aware of, however, some would say that there is a disproportionately low number of Asians as professional athletes. I take pride in trying my best to be a role model to show young Asian American boys and girls that they are only limited by the size of their dreams.”
– Nathan Adrian
38. “To finally recognize our own invisibility is to finally be on the path toward visibility. Invisibility is not a natural state for anyone.”
– Mitsuye Yamada
AAPI Heritage Month Quotes About Believing in Yourself
39. “Well, I’m not here to live up to anyone else’s expectations – I’m here to live to mine.”
– Jeremy Lin
40. “Education and imagination will carry you to places which we won’t believe possible. Make your life count – and the world will be a better place because you tried.”
– Ellison Onizuka
41. “Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before.”
– Kamala Harris
42. “Do something because you really want to do it. If you’re doing it just for the goal and don’t enjoy the path, then I think you’re cheating yourself.”
– Kalpana Chawla
43. “If people think you are this amazing, own it.”
– David Chang
44. “Don’t ever think that just because you do things differently, you’re wrong.”
– Gail Tsukiyama
45. “Absorb what is useful. Discard what is not. Add what is uniquely your own.”
– Bruce Lee
Looking for more ways to celebrate AAPI History Month with your team? If so, check out our guide: 11+ Ideas for AAPI History Month 2023
Celebrate AAPI History Month: NEW Virtual Team Building Event!
New for spring 2023, from Unexpected Virtual Tours: our AAPI History Month team building virtual experience! Honor Asian American and Pacific Islander history with your team by learning about important leaders from the 1800s through the present. Plus, take a virtual field trip to San Francisco’s Chinatown and learn how Asian Americans have impacted every aspect of American life. As an add-on, you can have themed Treat Boxes shipped directly to each member of your team!
Located in Atlanta? Check out Unexpected Atlanta Tours & Gifts