619 Quotes by Zora Neale Hurston

I love myself when I am laughing. . . and then again when I am looking mean and impressive.

If you haven't got it, you can't show it. If you have got it, you can't hide it.

It seems to me to be true that heavens are placed in the sky because it is the unreachable. The unreachable and therefore the unknowable always seems divine--hence, religion. People need religion because the great masses fear life and its consequences. Its responsibilities weigh heavy. Feeling a weakness in the face of great forces, men seek an alliance with omnipotence to bolster up their feeling of weakness, even though the omnipotence they rely upon is a creature of their own minds. It gives them a feeling of security.

It is easy to be hopeful in the day when you can see the things you wish on.

It is a curious thing to be a woman in the Caribbean after you have been a woman in these United States.

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.

I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background........Beside the waters of the Hudson" I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again." How It Feels to Be Colored Me

If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding.

I want a busy life, a just mind, and a timely death.