Quotes by Zora Neale Hurston

“I have been in Sorrows kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.”

“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.”

“Dont you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless its in the sea, and its homesick, and bound to make its way home someday”

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to jump at the sun. We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”

“Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? Its beyond me.”

“Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”

“No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.”

“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. . . . I do not weep at the world -- I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”

“Ships at a distance have every mans wish on board”

“Those that dont got it, cant show it. Those that got it, cant hide it.”

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

“The present was an egg laid by the past that had the future inside its shell.”

“It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble, and then not worth much after you get it.”

“There is something about poverty that smells like death.”

Love is like the sea. Its a moving thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from the shore it meets, and its different with every shore.

I have known the joy and pain of friendship. I have served and been served. I have made some good enemies for which I am not a bit sorry. I have loved unselfishly, and I have fondled hatred with the red-hot tongs of Hell. Thats living.

Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships.

When God had made The Man, he made him out of stuff that sung all the time and glittered all over. Some angels got jealous and chopped him into millions of pieces, but still he glittered and hummed. So they beat him down to nothing but sparks but each little spark had a shine and a song. So they covered each one over with mud. And the lonesomeness in the sparks make them hunt for one another.

Grown people know that they do not always know the way of things, and even if they think they know, they do not know where and how they got the proof.

Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.