Quote

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.

James Weldon Johnson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

James Weldon Johnson
Age: 67 †
Born: 1871
Born: June 17
Died: 1938
Died: June 26
Author
Composer
Diplomat
Jurist
Lawyer
Novelist
Poet
Politician
Songwriter
Writer
Jacksonville
Florida
J. W. Johnson
Dust
Mammy
Image
Toiling
Baby
Lump
Great
Lumps
Like
Bending
Shaped
Clay
Till

More quotes by James Weldon Johnson

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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
This country can have no more democracy than it accords and guarantees to the humblest and weakest citizen.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
...evil is a force and, like the physical and chemical forces, we cannot annihilate it we may only change its form. We light upon one evil and hit it with all the might of our civilization, but only succeed in scattering it into a dozen of other forms
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
James Weldon Johnson
Image
I finally made up my mind that I would neither disclaim the black race nor claim the white race but that I would change my name, raise a mustache, and let the world take me for what it would that it was not necessary for me to go about with a label of inferiority pasted across my forehead.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said, O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
A great wave of humiliation and shame swept over me. Shame that I belonged to a race that could be so dealt with and shame for my country, that it, the great example of democracy to the world, should be the only civilized, if not the only state on earth, where a human being would be burned alive.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
It’s no disgrace to be black, but it’s often very inconvenient.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
In the life of everyone there is a limited number of experiences which are not written upon the memory, but stamped there with a die and in the long years after, they can be called up in detail, and every emotion that was stirred by them can be lived through anew these are the tragedies of life.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.
James Weldon Johnson
Image
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.
James Weldon Johnson