James Weldon Johnson Short Quotes

25 Sourced Quotes

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New York is the most fatally fascinating thing in America.

James Weldon Johnson
Young man—Young man—Your arm's too short to box with God.

James Weldon Johnson
It's no disgrace to be black, but it's often very inconvenient.

James Weldon Johnson
As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.

James Weldon Johnson
As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.

James Weldon Johnson
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.

James Weldon Johnson
Without a thought of fear — Man never had The faith in God That he has in an engineer!

James Weldon Johnson
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.

James Weldon Johnson
I thought of Paris as a beauty spot on the face of the earth, and of London as a big freckle.

James Weldon Johnson
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I'll make me a man!

James Weldon Johnson
I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.

James Weldon Johnson
My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her.

James Weldon Johnson
It is strange how in some things honest people can be dishonest without the slightest compunction.

James Weldon Johnson
And far as the eye of God could see
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights.

James Weldon Johnson
Find Sister Caroline...
And she's tired—
She's weary—
Go down, Death, and bring her to me.

James Weldon Johnson
Every race and every nation should be judged by the best it has been able to produce, not by the worst.

James Weldon Johnson
And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said,
"I'm lonely—
I'll make me a world."

James Weldon Johnson
It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives its most distinctive characteristic.

James Weldon Johnson
There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it.

James Weldon Johnson
And Satan smiled, stretched out his hand, and said,—
"O War, of all the scourges of humanity, I crown you chief."

James Weldon Johnson
The colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

James Weldon Johnson
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

James Weldon Johnson
Father, Father Abraham,
To-day look on us from above;
On us, the offspring of thy faith,
The children of thy Christ-like love.

James Weldon Johnson
How would you have us, as we are?
Or sinking 'neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star?
Or gazing empty at despair?

James Weldon Johnson
Whose starward eye
Saw chariot swing low? And who was he
That breathed that comforting, melodic sigh,
Nobody knows de trouble I see?

James Weldon Johnson
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till He shaped it in His own image.

James Weldon Johnson
Shortly after this I was made a member of the boys choir, it being found that I possessed a clear, strong soprano voice. I enjoyed the singing very much.

James Weldon Johnson
My appearance was always good and my ability to play on the piano, especially ragtime, which was then at the height of its vogue, made me a welcome guest.

James Weldon Johnson
Through my music teaching and my not absolutely irregular attendance at church, I became acquainted with the best class of colored people in Jacksonville.

James Weldon Johnson
The glory of the day was in her face,
The beauty of the night was in her eyes.
And over all her loveliness, the grace
Of Morning blushing in the early skies.

James Weldon Johnson