Zora Neale Hurston Quotes

• It seems to me to be true that heavens are placed in the sky because it is the unreachable. The unreachable and therefore the unknowable always seems divine--hence, religion. People need religion because the great masses fear life and its consequences. Its responsibilities weigh heavy. Feeling a weakness in the face of great forces, men seek an alliance with omnipotence to bolster up their feeling of weakness, even though the omnipotence they rely upon is a creature of their own minds. It gives them a feeling of security.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Responsibility   Men   Omnipotence  

  426

• The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Past   Eggs   Shells  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1995). “The Complete Stories”, HarperCollins Publishers

  2485

• you can't beat me and my prayers!

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Prayer   Beats  

  1562

• Tain't no use in you cryin' . . . But folks is meant to cry 'bout somethin' or other. Better leave things de way dey is. Youse young yet. No tellin' whut mout happen befo' you die.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Use   Way   Cry  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.31, University of Illinois Press

  3390

• I been through living for years. I just ain't dead yet.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Years   Emptiness  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1995). “Zora Neale Hurston: Novels and Stories: Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories”

  3496

• I do not weep at the world I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Oysters   Knives   Black History  

  World Tomorrow "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928)

  360

• Perhaps I am just a coward who loves to laugh at life better than I do cry with it. But when I do get to crying, boy, I can roll a mean tear.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Mean   Boys   Laughing  

  Zora Neale Hurston (2002). “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters”, Doubleday Books

  3946

• There is nothing to make you like other human beings so much as doing things for them.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Inspirational   Humans   Human Beings  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.38, Feminist Press at CUNY

  3006

• To avoid the consequences of posterity the mulattos give the blacks a first class letting alone. There is a frantic stampede white-ward to escape from Jamaica's black mass.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Jamaica   Class   White  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.125, Feminist Press at CUNY

  368

• Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Two   Two Things   Eyes Watching  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.230, University of Illinois Press

  4207

• A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Distance   Insightful   Bigs  

  4239

• Everybody has some special road of thought along which they travel when they are alone to themselves. And his road of thought is what makes every man what he is.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Men   Special   Every Man  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1939). “Moses: Man of the Mountain”

  482

• I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Mother   Native American   African American  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.152, Feminist Press at CUNY

  4505

• I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Prayer   Responsibility   Men  

  4062

• Why fear? The stuff of my being is matter, ever changing, ever moving, but never lost; so what need of denominations and creeds to deny myself the comfort of all my fellow men? The wide belt of the universe has no need for finger-rings. I am one with the infinite and need no other assurance.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Moving   Men   Comfort  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1969). “Dust tracks on a road”

  3034

• The spirit of the marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Spirit   Bedroom   Parlor  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.86, University of Illinois Press

  3799

• It is one of the blessings of this world that few people see visions and dream dreams.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Dream   Blessing   People  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.42, Feminist Press at CUNY

  2252

• Don't you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Home   Journey   Ice Water  

  2194

• Folklore is the boiled-down juice, or pot-likker, of human living.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Juice   Pot   Myth  

  2081

• To a haughty belly, kindness is hard to swallow and harder to digest.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Kindness   Harder   Belly  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1995). “Zora Neale Hurston: Novels and Stories: Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories”

  5032

• Slogans can be worse than swords if they are only put in the right mouths.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Mouths   Slogans   Ifs  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1995). “Zora Neale Hurston: Novels and Stories: Jonah's Gourd Vine / Their Eyes Were Watching God / Moses, Man of the Mountain / Seraph on the Suwanee / Selected Stories”

  982

• She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Men   Saving Up   Feelings  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.87, University of Illinois Press

  4957

• The whole matter revolves around the self-respect of my people. How much satisfaction can I get from a court order for somebody toassociate with me who does not wish me near them?

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Self   Order   People  

  Zora Neale Hurston (2002). “Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters”, Doubleday Books

  856

• Taint no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it aint in 'im.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Men   Law   Earth  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.201, Feminist Press at CUNY

  863

• Grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Happiness   Inspiring   Fear  

  Zora Neale Hurston (2010). “Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography”, p.38, Harper Collins

  784

• He looked like the love thoughts of women.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Love Thoughts   Eyes Watching  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.128, University of Illinois Press

  288

• When Janie looked out of her door she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west -- that cloud field of the sky -- to arm themselves with thunders and march forth against the world. Louder and higher and lower and wider the sound and motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Doors   Sky   Clouds  

  Zora Neale Hurston (1937). “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, p.189, University of Illinois Press

  4682

• Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Inspiring   Happiness   Success  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.155, Feminist Press at CUNY

  3936

• Gods always behave like the people who make them.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Motivational   God   Atheist  

  4412

• It seemed to me that the human beings I met reacted pretty much the same to the same stimuli. Different idioms,yes. Circumstances and conditions having power to influence, yes. Inherent difference, no.

  Zora Neale Hurston

  Differences   Different   Influence  

  Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker (1979). “I Love Myself when I Am Laughing ... and Then Again when I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader”, p.68, Feminist Press at CUNY

  773

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