top of page
"Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune."
Standard
Customized
Exlpore more Fortune quotes

"There is a kind of elevation which does not depend on fortune; it is a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for great things; it is a price which we imperceptibly set upon ourselves."

"I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own."

"We do not know what is really good or bad fortune."

"Accidental wisdom is better than willful folly."

"There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune."
Explore more quotes by James Weldon Johnson

"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."

"My mother was kept very busy with her sewing; sometimes she would have another woman helping her."

"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."

"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."

"There are a great many colored people who are ashamed of the cake-walk, but I think they ought to be proud of it."

"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."

"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."

"The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice."

"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."
bottom of page