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Quote by James Weldon Johnson

Work

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

This novel is a first-person account of a man who passes as white in a society that is deeply divided along racial lines. The story delves into the complexities of his life, his struggle for self-identity, and the challenges he faces as he navigates the complexities of the post-Civil War South. more

Author

James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, poet, musician, and civil rights activist. He is known for his poetry, novels, and musical compositions, and was a significant figure in the American civil rights movement. more

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“Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes... The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses... In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his statues, and his triumphs defy the desecration of time and the judgment of history.”

“Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence - by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the heartless strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed - only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”