[To the patronizing train conductor who had twice said, 'Auntie, give me your ticket':] Which of my sister's sons are you?

From the first, I made my learning, what little it was, useful every way I could.

When they learn of Shakespeare and Goethe, we must teach them of Pushkin and Dumas. . . . Whatever the white man has done, we have done, and often better.

If we have the courage and tenacity of our forebears, who stood firmly like a rock against the lash of slavery, we shall find a way to do for our day what they did for theirs.

Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living.

I have had more than half a century of such happiness. A great deal of worry and sorrow, too, but never a worry or a sorrow that was not offset by a purple iris, a lark, a bluebird, or a dewy morning glory.

For I am my mother's daughter, and the drums of Africa still beat in my heart.