James Weldon Johnson Quotes

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James Weldon Johnson

Profession : Poet

Birth : June 17, 1871

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

I had enjoyed life in Paris, and, taking all things into consideration, enjoyed it wholesomely.

James Weldon Johnson

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

I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them.

James Weldon Johnson

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

As yet, the Negroes themselves do not fully appreciate these old slave songs.

James Weldon Johnson

As I look back now I can see that I was a perfect little aristocrat.

James Weldon Johnson

And so for a couple of years my life was divided between my music and my school books.

James Weldon Johnson

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

Americans are immensely popular in Paris; and this is not due solely to the fact that they spend lots of money there, for they spend just as much or more in London, and in the latter city they are merely tolerated because they do spend.

James Weldon Johnson