Quotes from Josephine Baker

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad.

I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more.

I spent 30 minutes each morning rubbing my body with half a lemon to lighten my skin.

We must change the system of education and instruction. Unfortunately, history has shown us that brotherhood must be learned, when it should be natural.

The white imagination is sure something when it comes to blacks.

My people have a country of their own to go to if they choose... Africa... but, this America belongs to them just as much as it does to any of the white race... in some ways even more so, because they gave the sweat of their brow and their blood in slavery so that many parts of America could become prosperous and recognized in the world.

I shall dance all my life. . . . I would like to die, breathless, spent, at the end of a dance.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul, when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.

What am I most ashamed of in my life? Not keeping my promise to my sister and being too scared of America to attend her funeral.

Since I personified the savage on the stage, I tried to be as civilized as possible in daily life.

When I was a child and they burned me out of my home, I was frightened and I ran away. Eventually I ran far away. It was to a place called France. Many of you have been there, and many have not. But I must tell you, ladies and gentlemen, in that country I never feared. It was like a fairyland place.

You must get an education. You must go to school, and you must learn to protect yourself. And you must learn to protect yourself with the pen, and not the gun.

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.

The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.

Art is an elastic sort of love.

Let us stop saying 'white Americans' and 'colored Americans,' let us try once and for all saying... Americans. Let human beings be equal on Earth as in Heaven.

All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.

He was my cream, and I was his coffee - And when you poured us together, it was something.

I believe if the white and colored people could get together and be let alone, they would understand each other and consequently love each other.

God dislikes evil, and no happiness can be built on hate. Love one another as brothers.

I love performing. I shall perform until the day I die.

I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on.

He was my cream, and I was his coffee - And when you poured us together, it was something.