James Weldon Johnson Quotes
Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.
You are young, gifted, and Black. We must begin to tell our young, There's a world waiting for you, Yours is the quest that's just begun.
Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.
The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.
Lift every voice and sing Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies; Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.
It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.
And God stepped out on space, and He looked around and said: I'm lonely - I'll make me a world.
Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.
When one has seen something of the world and human nature, one must conclude, after all, that between people in like stations of life there is very little difference the world over.
I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
I do not see how a people that can find in its conscience any excuse whatever for slowly burning to death a human being, or for tolerating such an act, can be entrusted with the salvation of a race.
O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
...one of the best things about running is that no matter how fast you've run in the past, running fast in the future does not come easily or with any guarantees.
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives it most distinctive characteristics.
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
This Great God, Like a mammy bending over her baby, Kneeled down in the dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till He shaped it in His own image.
There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.
Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much.
In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.
But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form.
Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity, and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation.
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways.
And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said, "O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief.
With his head in his hands, God thought and thought, Till he thought: I'll make me a man!
O black and unknown bards of long ago How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How in your darkness did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre?
Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.
There were two immediate results of my forced loneliness: I began to find company in books, and greater pleasure in music.
