Quotes from Zora Neale Hurston

Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession.

All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped. Through indiscriminate suffering men know fear and fear is the most divine emotion. It is the stones for altars and the beginning of wisdom.

Papa used to shake his head at this and say, "What's de use of me taking my fist to a poor weakly thing like a woman? Anyhow, you got to submit yourself to 'em, so there ain't no use in beating on 'em and then have to go back and beg 'em pardon.

The woman took the faded shirt and muddy overalls and laid them away from remembrance. It was a weapon against her strength and if it turned out of no significance, still it was a hope that she might fall to their level some day.

When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They'd look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them.

pay no attention to what I say about love, for as I said before, it may not mean a thing. It is my own bathtub singing. Just because my mouth opens up like a prayer book, it does not just have to flap like a Bible.

Ah can't die easy thinkin' maybe de menfolks white or black is makin' a spit cup outa you: have some sympathy fuh me. Put me down easy, Janie, Ah'ma cracked plate.

It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different: it put you in a wonder.

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.

They came in wagons [...] People ugly from ignorance and broken from being poor.

Miserable, sullen men, black and white under guard had to keep on searching for bodies and digging graves. A huge ditch was dug across the white cemetery and a big ditch was opened across the black graveyard. Plenty

She had been getting ready for her journey to the horizons in search of people; it was important to all the world that she should find them and they find her. But she had been whipped like a cur dog, and run off down a back road after things.

All gods who receive homage are cruel. All gods dispense suffering without reason. Otherwise they would not be worshipped.

She found that she had a host of thoughts she had never expressed to him, and numerous emotions she had never let Jody know about. Things packed up and put away in parts of her heart where he could never find them. She was saving up feelings for some man she had never seen. She had an inside and an outside now and suddenly she knew how not to mix them.

Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the west. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. what need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come.

There two things everybody had to do: Go to God and find out what living is for yourself.

They seemed to be staring at the dark but their eyes were watching God.

It's bad to have some power, but not enough.

The others forgot the work and the weather watching them throw. It was art. A thousand dollars a throw in Madison Square Garden wouldn't have gotten any more breathless suspense. It would have just been more people holding in.

Things like that gave me the first glimmering of the universal female gospel that all good traits and leanings come from the mother's side.

Nothing is so desolate as a place where life has been and gone.

She often spoke to falling seeds and said, Ah hope you fall on soft ground, because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed.

The sunlight where I had lost them was still of Midas gold, but that which touched me where I stood had somehow turned to gilt.

I dreamt of traversing the globe in fancy boots, only to discover I was a mouse on a treadmill.