“Artists are the antennae of the race.”

The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism.

A man’s hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.

Why fight for a flag when you can buy one for a nickel.

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

I did not enter into silence. Silence captured me.

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough.

The flavors of the peach and the apricot are not lost from generation to generation. Neither are they transmitted by book learning.

A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit.

Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.

Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market.

The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth.

I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown.

The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language.

What thou lovest well remains.

Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.

If I could believe the Quakers banned music because church music is so damn bad, I should view them with approval.

You go to school, you study about the Germans and the French, but not about your own race. I hope the time will come when you study black history too.

No white American ever thinks that any other race is wholly civilized until he wears the white man’s clothes, eats the white man’s food, speaks the white man’s language, and professes the white man’s religion.

In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not keep the world from what it wants.

Mere connection with what is known as a superior race will not permanently carry an individual forward unless the individual has worth.

Racism is stupid. It’s an insult to God, arrogantly implying that God goofed-up when he chose to make us all different.

The largest question facing the human race is not when will you learn, but when will you act on what you’ve already learned.

Life is like a dogsled race. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.

Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.