Quotes About Power

So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see.

The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.

Well, she thought, that big old dawg with the hatred in his eyes had killed her after all.

You got de keys to de kingdom.

The town had a basketful of feelings good and bad about Joe's positions and possessions, but none had the temerity to challenge him. They bowed down to him rather, because he was all of these things, and then again he was all of these things because the town bowed down.

They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.

We, too, consider machine gun bullets good laxatives for heathens who get constipated with toxic ideas about a country of their own. If the patient dies from the treatment, it was not because the medicine was not good.

He ain't kissin' yo' mouf when he carry on over yuh lak dat. He's kissin' yo' foot and 'tain't in uh man tuh kiss foot long. Mouf kissin' is on uh equal and dat's natural but when dey got to bow down tuh love, dey soon straightens up.

Jeff Bruce threw in. "Speakin' of winds, he's de wind and

God was grumbling his thunder and playing the zig-zag lightning thru his fingers.

He had a bow-down command in his face, and every step he took made the thing more tangible.

The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people in the houses along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.

What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world.

They were there with their tongues cocked and loaded, the only real weapon left to weak folks. The only killing tool they are allowed to use in the presence of white folks.

But stillness was the sleep of swords.

you switches a mean fanny round in a kitchen.

She was a wind on the ocean. She moved men, but the helm determined the port.

Here it is just like it is in Egypt—the scared people do all of the biggest talk.

Ah'm uh man even if Ah is de Mayor. But de mayor's wife is somethin' different again.

Before the week was over he had whipped Janie. Not because her behavior justified his jealousy, but it relieved that awful fear inside him. Being able to whip her reassured him in possession.

Papa used to shake his head at this and say, "What's de use of me taking my fist to a poor weakly thing like a woman? Anyhow, you got to submit yourself to 'em, so there ain't no use in beating on 'em and then have to go back and beg 'em pardon.

It's bad to have some power, but not enough.

Dat's de reason de sister in black works harder than anybody else in the world. De white man tells de n****r to work and he takes and tells his wife.

There was no doubt that the town respected him and even admired him in a way. But any man who walks in the way of power and property is bound to meet hate. So when speakers stood up when the occasion demanded and said "Our beloved Mayor," it was one of those statements that everybody says but nobody actually believes like "God is everywhere.