Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world! Zora Neale Hurston More Quotes by Zora Neale Hurston More Quotes From Zora Neale Hurston We must learn to be honest with ourselves, and know our shortcomings. We will acquire cohesion but we will pay dearly for being a slow pupil. Zora Neale Hurston diversityjusticepay I know that nothing is destructible; things merely change forms. Zora Neale Hurston formchangeloss The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell. Zora Neale Hurston shellseggspast The sun, the hero of every day, the impersonal old man that beams as brightly on death as on birth, came up every morning. Zora Neale Hurston heromorningmen From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom…It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep. Zora Neale Hurston breathingsleepsong There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought. Zora Neale Hurston sightmindfeelings every heart has its graveyard. Zora Neale Hurston graveyardsorrowheart There is something about poverty that smells like death. Dead dreams dropping off the heart like leaves in a dry season and rotting around the feet; impulses smothered too long in the fetid air of underground caves. The soul lives in sickly air. People can be slaveships in shoes. Zora Neale Hurston smelldreamheart Don't you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday. Zora Neale Hurston ice-waterjourneyhome But for the national welfare, it is urgent to realize that the minorities do think, and think about something other than the race problem. Zora Neale Hurston minoritiesracethinking A great state is a well-blended mash of something of all the people and all of none of the people. The liquor of statecraft is distilled from the mash you got. Zora Neale Hurston diversityjusticepeople Don't you love nobody better'n you do yo'self. Do, you'll be dying befo' yo' time is out. Zora Neale Hurston dyingself Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves. Zora Neale Hurston eyes-watchingtwo-thingstwo You heard me. You ain't blind. Zora Neale Hurston blindheard Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches Zora Neale Hurston donedawntree Janie looked down on him and felt a self-crushing love. So her soul crawled out from its hiding place. Zora Neale Hurston crushsoulself Tell me, and then again show me, so I can know. Zora Neale Hurston show-meshowsknows I have been amazed by the Anglo-Saxon's lack of curiosity about the internal lives and emotions of the Negroes, and for that matter, any non-Anglo-Saxon peoples within our borders, above the class of unskilled labor. Zora Neale Hurston african-americancuriosityclass Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. Zora Neale Hurston singingmaylove I wish I could buy you for what you are really worth and sell you for what you think you're worth. I sure would make money on the deal. Zora Neale Hurston making-moneywishthinking
