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In The Life Of Everyone There Is A Limited Number Of Experiences Which Are Not Written Upon The Memory, But Stamped There With A Die; And In The Long Years After, They Can Be Called Up In Detail, And Every Emotion That Was Stirred By Them Can Be Lived Through Anew; These Are The Tragedies Of Life.

-James Weldon Johnson

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In The Life Of

James Weldon Johnson

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In The Life Of Everyone There Is A Limited Number Of Experiences Which Are Not Written Upon The Memory, But Stamped There With A Die; And In The Long Years After, They Can Be Called Up In Detail, And Every Emotion That Was Stirred By Them Can Be Lived Through Anew; These Are The Tragedies Of Life.

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This Great God, Like A Mammy Bending Over Her Baby, Kneeled Down In The Dust Toiling Over A Lump Of Clay Till He Shaped It In His Own Image.

At A Very Early Age I Began To Thump On The Piano Alone, And It Was Not Long Before I Was Able To Pick Out A Few Tunes? I Also Learned The Names Of The Notes In Both Clefs, But I Preferred Not Be Hampered By Notes.

You Are Young, Gifted, And Black. We Must Begin To Tell Our Young, There's A World Waiting For You, Yours Is The Quest That's Just Begun.

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.

A People May Become Great Through Many Means, But There Is Only One Measure By Which Its Greatness Is Recognized And Acknowledged. The Final Measure Of The Greatness Of All Peoples Is The Amount And Standard Of The Literature And Art They Have Produced.... No People That Has Produced Great Literature And Art Has Ever Been Looked Upon By The World As Distinctly Inferior.

It Is Strange How In Some Things Honest People Can Be Dishonest Without The Slightest Compunction.

There Are A Great Many Colored People Who Are Ashamed Of The Cake-walk, But I Think They Ought To Be Proud Of It.

Labor Is The Fabled Magician's Wand, The Philosophers Stone, And The Cap Of Good Fortune.

It’s No Disgrace To Be Black, But It’s Often Very Inconvenient.

When One Has Seen Something Of The World And Human Nature, One Must Conclude, After All, That Between People In Like Stations Of Life There Is Very Little Difference The World Over.

We Have Come Over A Way That With Tears Has Been Watered, We Have Come, Treading Our Path Through The Blood Of The Slaughtered.

Shortly After This I Was Made A Member Of The Boys Choir, It Being Found That I Possessed A Clear, Strong Soprano Voice. I Enjoyed The Singing Very Much.

...one Of The Best Things About Running Is That No Matter How Fast You've Run In The Past, Running Fast In The Future Does Not Come Easily Or With Any Guarantees.

Nothing Great Or Enduring, Especially In Music, Has Ever Sprung Full-fledged And Unprecedented From The Brain Of Any Master; The Best He Gives To The World He Gathers From The Hearts Of The People, And Runs It Through The Alembic Of His Genius.

It Is From The Blues That All That May Be Called American Music Derives It Most Distinctive Characteristics.

Characteristics

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.

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.

The Battle Was First Waged Over The Right Of The Negro To Be Classed As A Human Being With A Soul; Later, As To Whether He Had Sufficient Intellect To Master Even The Rudiments Of Learning; And Today It Is Being Fought Out Over His Social Recognition.

Any Musical Person Who Has Never Heard A Negro Congregation Under The Spell Of Religious Fervor Sing These Old Songs Has Missed One Of The Most Thrilling Emotions Which The Human Heart May Experience.

Every Race And Every Nation Should Be Judged By The Best It Has Been Able To Produce, Not By The Worst.

I Found Cause To Wonder Upon What Ground The English Accuse Americans Of Corrupting The Language By Introducing Slang Words. I Think I Heard More And More Different Kinds Of Slang During My Few Weeks' Stay In London Than In My Whole "tenderloin" Life In New York. But I Suppose The English Feel That The Language Is Theirs, And That They May Do With It As They Please Without At The Same Time Allowing That Privilege To Others.

And God Stepped Out On Space, And He Looked Around And Said: I'm Lonely - I'll Make Me A World.

Make Yourself As Happy As Possible, And Try To Make Those Happy Whose Lives Come In Touch With Yours. But To Attempt To Right The Wrongs And Cease The Sufferings Of The World In General Is A Waste Of Effort.

In The Life Of Everyone There Is A Limited Number Of Experiences Which Are Not Written Upon The Memory, But Stamped There With A Die; And In The Long Years After, They Can Be Called Up In Detail, And Every Emotion That Was Stirred By Them Can Be Lived Through Anew; These Are The Tragedies Of Life.

The Colored People Of This Country Know And Understand The White People Better Than The White People Know And Understand Them.

This Country Can Have No More Democracy Than It Accords And Guarantees To The Humblest And Weakest Citizen.

Lift Every Voice And Sing Till Earth And Heaven Ring, Ring With The Harmonies Of Liberty. Let Our Rejoicing Rise High As The Listening Skies; Let It Resound Loud As The Rolling Sea.

I Am A Thing Not New, I Am As Old As Human Nature. I Am That Which Lurks, Ready To Spring Whenever A Bar Is Loosed; The Ancient Trait Which Fights Incessantly Against Restraint, Balks At The Upward Climb; The Weight Forever Seeking To Obey The Law Of Downward Pull; And I Am More: The Bitter Fruit Am I Of Planted Seed; The Resultant, The Inevitable End Of Evil Forces And The Powers Of Wrong.

Through My Music Teaching And My Not Absolutely Irregular Attendance At Church, I Became Acquainted With The Best Class Of Colored People In Jacksonville.

...evil Is A Force And, Like The Physical And Chemical Forces, We Cannot Annihilate It; We May Only Change Its Form. We Light Upon One Evil And Hit It With All The Might Of Our Civilization, But Only Succeed In Scattering It Into A Dozen Of Other Forms

The Fortress Inspired A Tremendous Confidence. It Was The Only Propeller Driven Aircraft I Have Flown That Was Completely Viceless; There Were No Undesirable Flight Characteristics. The Directional Stability Was Excellent And, Properly Trimmed, The B-17 Could Be Taken Off, Landed And Banked Without Change Of Trim.

Young Man, Young Man, Your Arm's Too Short To Box With God.

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