Our Friends James Weldon Johnson Quotes
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~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
Amsterdam was a great surprise to me. I had always thought of Venice as the city of canals; it had never entered my mind that I should find similar conditions in a Dutch town.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
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 Quote
Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
O black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? How, in your darkness, did you come to know The power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre?
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
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 Quote
But I must own that I also felt stirred by an unselfish desire to voice all the joys and sorrows, the hopes and ambitions, of the American Negro, in classic musical form.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
Northern white people love the Negro in a sort of abstract way, as a race; through a sense of justice, charity, and philanthropy, they will liberally assist in his elevation.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
The peculiar fascination which the South held over my imagination and my limited capital decided me in favor of Atlanta University; so about the last of September I bade farewell to the friends and scenes of my boyhood and boarded a train for the South.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
I do not see how a people that can find in its conscience any excuse whatever for slowly burning to death a human being, or for tolerating such an act, can be entrusted with the salvation of a race.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote
My luck at the gambling table was varied; sometimes I was fifty to a hundred dollars ahead, and at other times I had to borrow money from my fellow workmen to settle my room rent and pay for my meals.
~ James Weldon Johnson Quote