Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I'm lonely I'll make me a world.
She was my first love, and I loved her as only a boy loves.
Young man, young man, your arm's too short to box with God.
It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.
Washington shows the Negro not only at his best, but also at his worst.
As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.
O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
With his head in his hands, God thought and thought, Till he thought: I'll make me a man!
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.
I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.
And God stepped out on space, and He looked around and said: I'm lonely - I'll make me a world.
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.
It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive character.
Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.
This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives it most distinctive characteristics.
And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said, "O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief.
There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.
The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered, We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.
I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.
...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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.
My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
Make yourself as happy as possible, and try to make those happy whose lives come in touch with yours. But to attempt to right the wrongs and cease the sufferings of the world in general is a waste of effort.
When we arrived in London, my sadness at leaving Paris was turned into despair. After my long stay in the French capital, huge, ponderous, massive London seemed to me as ugly a thing as man could contrive to make.
At a very early age I began to thump on the piano alone, and it was not long before I was able to pick out a few tunes? I also learned the names of the notes in both clefs, but I preferred not be hampered by notes.
Americans are immensely popular in Paris; and this is not due solely to the fact that they spend lots of money there, for they spend just as much or more in London, and in the latter city they are merely tolerated because they do spend.
The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.
It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.
So God stepped over to the edge of the world And He spat out the seven seas; He batted His eyes, and the lightnings flashed; He clapped His hands, and the thunders rolled; And the waters above the earth came down, The cooling waters came down.
Nothing great or enduring, especially in music, has ever sprung full-fledged and unprecedented from the brain of any master; the best he gives to the world he gathers from the hearts of the people, and runs it through the alembic of his genius.