Zora Neale Hurston

"I feel that I have gained the right to understand as I understand."

"There is a force in the universe that knows the way."

"What's passed is prologue."

"The call of adventure into the wilderness has always been irresistible."

"I came into this world naked and all of my resources are still exposed."

"My people, my people."

"Ah, the power of love is a mighty thing."

"Some people could look at a mud puddle and see the ocean."

"It does not follow that because a man makes a mule of himself, that he must lose his voting rights."

"I have been in sorrow's kitchen and licked all the pots."

"The man who can't dance is not a man worth knowing."

"Anybody depending on somebody else's politeness is barking up the wrong tree."

"The ducks know about jealousy, the pigeons understand envy."

"A hard head makes a soft behind."

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal."

"I took the best of what I was given and discarded the rest."

"Words are such uncertain things. They do not mean the same to everyone."

"The black cat is not evil, it is misunderstood."

"I am not going to write about what I do not know."

"There is a quality of nobleness in ignorance."

"I am grateful for what I have learned."

"The challenge of life is making a worthy picture of oneself."

"Laughter may be day without night."

"To sing is to affirm that life is worth living."

"I want to deserve to have been lived."

"The idea of permanent death is repugnant to human nature."

"Freedom is never given, it has to be taken."

"Peace is the greatest wealth."

"In my younger years, I was taught that to be black was a burden."

"The old women gathered in the shade and told their stories."