My sense of humor will always stand in the way of my seeing myself, my family, my race or my nation as the whole intent of the universe.

Oh to be a pear tree – any tree in bloom! With kissing bees singing of the beginning of the world!

When I pitched headforemost into the world I landed in the crib of Negroism.

All my skinfolk ain't kinfolk.

An envious heart makes a treacherous ear.

If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.

I do not pray. . . . I do not expect God to single me out and grant me advantages over my fellow men. . . . Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility.