Zora Neale Hurston Quotes

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise. I rise. I rise.

I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me.

If I take a bump or bruise along the way, that's nothing compared to the sacrifices that the women whose shoulders I stand upon made along the way.

What is being black? It's making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that's seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you'll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude's.

Out of the huts of history's shame I rise.

I get asked that a lot and I always go back to my mom's, 'No one has the right to beat you.' I take that to every venue that I'm in. She would say, 'Someone has to be the best in the world, why not you?' I always try to keep that in mind.

Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I rise I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

Look who's standing if you please, 'though you tried to bring me to my knees.

Remember, no matter what you background is and what your current circumstances are, you have the capacity to take action. This is one of the golden threads of humanity - we all have the power to act in a way that will improve the quality of our lives.

My music is not for everyone. It's only for the stong-willed, the [street] soldiers music. It's not like party music- I mean, you could gig to it, but it's spiritual. My musi is spiritual. It's like Negro spiituals, except for the fact that I'm not saying 'We shall Overcome.' I'm saying that we are overcome.

The reason why we're warriors is that we rise to the occasion; anyone that's felt like the system put them down, and then they rose to the occasion, they're a warrior. It's not about whether you come from the hood or you come from the suburbs, you know what I mean? It's about reality and life.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you--gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like something gold you let go of--and I can! I'm determined to do it--and nothing's more determined than a cat on a tin roof--is there?

I've never let anyone talk me into not believing in myself

Stay strong. Depression lies.

When people ask me if it has been a hard or easy road, I always answer with the same quotation, the end is nothing, the road is all.Willa Cather

When you put your feet on the floor every morning, Hell should shake!

People who consider themselves victims of their circumstances will always remain victims unless they develop a greater vision for their lives.

You could easily play the guy as straight-up hood throughout the whole movie, the Imperial Courts, but writer and director Malik Vitthal envisioned a human being that has never been seen before in film: a black man in circumstances that he does not like, who is passionate - persistent - in turning it around.

We can all be weak, but we all have to make a conscious decision to be strong.

We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings and queens, and thereby ignore the Middle Passage and centuries of enforced servitude in the Americas. Although some of us might indeed be the descendants of African royalty, most of us are probably descendants of their subjects, the daughters and sons of African peasants or workers.

And, because of the life that I shared with these two amazing women [her mother and maternal grandmother] and the hardships and struggles that I saw them overcome, I learned an invaluable lesson, and that is that women can do anything we set our minds to... and then some!

When you're doing bad things, you just don't know whether you can conquer them or not. I found out how strong I could be when I was motivated, and I'm kind of proud of that.

I just know that right now, we want to be proud. For once. We want to take the struggle and rise above it. We want to frame it, live it, survive it. We want to put it in our mouths and taste it and never forget it, because it makes us strong.

By habits of thrift and economy, by way of the industrial school and college, we are coming up. We are crawling up, working up, yea, bursting up-often through oppression, unjust discrimination and prejudice-but through them all we are coming up, and with proper habits, intelligence, and property, there is no power on earth than can permanently stay our progress.