Zora Neale Hurston

"The years teach much which the days never know."

"The night is passing over in splendor and I am learning the lesson of humility."

"I have to live for the present moment to make the future bright."

"Curiosity is a natural appetite of good minds, and I have always been eager to learn."

"When you are reading a book, you are talking to the author. When you are writing, you are listening."

"The white man has always been jealous of anything that belongs to the Negro."

"I was born a black girl in a world that did not expect much of me."

"Humanity is not made up of mountains. Humanity is made up of people."

"Folk belief in God is not the same as folk belief in the devil."

"The South is the only place where it is possible for such a person to exist."

"All of us contain multitudes. We are not simple creatures."

"I have known rivers ancient as the world. I have known the soul of my people."

"Art and beauty have always been my refuge from a harsh world."

"Time is a cruel master that leaves no one unchanged."

"I take the attitude that I have nothing to lose by trying."

"The greatest gift one person can give another is their honest attention."

"I have always preferred to keep my own counsel about matters of the heart."

"We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to adequacy of verbal instruction."

"The oldest human longing is the longing for connection and understanding."

"I am a woman, and I am a scholar, and that is not always an easy thing to be."

"There are things that I have come to understand about the nature of power."

"Money can buy many things, but it cannot buy peace of mind or true contentment."

"I have always believed that the mind is the greatest weapon we possess."

"Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind and a quality of the spirit."

"The raw materials of the world belong to all of us, but how we use them defines us."

"I have never known a person who loved learning who was not also kind."

"The future belongs to those who can imagine it into being."

"I am not afraid of storms, for I have learned to sail my own ship."

"Music is the language that the soul speaks when words fail."

"There is nothing more powerful than a person who has decided to tell their truth."