Zora Neale Hurston

Some people could look at a knot in a tree, and tell you the history of the world.

Ah, if I were not myself, I would be a good deal more interesting.

I am a Negro. I am proud to be a Negro. I am proud to be an American.

It is human to want to be better than you are.

I am not tragically colored. No, I am just Me.

The highest heaven is that of love.

You can be a good citizen and still be a Negro.

I have been a Negro, and I have been a woman, and I have been an American. And I have been all of these things at once.

Power is the thing that makes a man want to keep another man down.

The first thing a Negro learns in this country is to lie.

I want to be myself, and I want to be a woman, and I want to be an American. And I want to be all of these things without apology.

There is nothing in the world that can take the place of persistence.

I do not choose to be a common woman. It is my right to be uncommon… if I can.

I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and a sword in my hands.

I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.

It’s a funny thing, the less people have to live for, the less nerve they have to risk losing nothing.

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes.

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

Love is like the sea. It's a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.