Zora Neale Hurston's best quotes (with the book they come from)
The top 3 according to 64 votes from people: Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches. · Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore. · There are years that ask questions and years that answer.. (Updated May 2, 2022.)
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board", "There are years that ask questions and years that answer" and "jump at de sun": the most quoted lines by Zora Neale Hurston, from Their Eyes Were Watching God to her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road.
Top 13
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1
Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 2.
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2
Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 20.
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3
There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 3.
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4
Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 20.
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5
If you haven't got it, you can't show it. If you have got it, you can't hide it.
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), chapter 12, "My People! My People!".
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6
You got tuh go there tuh know there.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 20.
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7
I am not tragically colored.
Essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928).
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8
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), chapter 10, "Research".
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9
Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to "jump at de sun." We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), chapter 2, "My Folks".
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10
Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), chapter 1.
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11
Gods always behave like the people who make them.
Tell My Horse (1938), chapter 15.
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12
Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.
Dust Tracks on a Road (1942), chapter 14, "Love".
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13
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me.
Essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (1928).
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Comments (2)
"There are years that ask questions and years that answer" should be number one. Their Eyes Were Watching God was assigned reading and it's the only one I kept.
Dust Tracks on a Road is so underrated. The jump at de sun bit is on a sticky note above my desk.