Best Mississippi Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“That's the unfortunate part about historical structures in general; however breathtaking they might be, if the walls could talk, they might actually sob.”

History Sadness Mississippi Old South If The Walls Could Talk

Book:Small Orange Fruit

Source: Small Orange Fruit

“They cried. Yes, yes, they cried. Cried more tears than the Mississippi could hold, but those tears never washed away their faith…”

God Faith Tears Crying Mississippi

Book:These Colors Don't Run

Source: These Colors Don't Run

“Roy Dale suspected that Mississippi was beautiful. He wasn't sure. He didn't have anything to compare it to. He hadn't even ever been out of the Delta.”

Home Mississippi Traveling

Book:Wolf Whistle

Source: Wolf Whistle

“A quiet snowglobe of pain I want to shake. While the flakes fall like ash we race the train to reach the place Emmett Till last whistled or smiled or did nothing.”

Pain Poetry Poem Mississippi Emmett Till Money Mississippi

Author:Kevin Young

“White ain't nothing.' Mama's grip did not lessen. 'It is something, Cassie. White is something just like black is something. Everybody born on this Earth is something, and nobody, no matter what color is better than anybody else.' 'Then how come Mr. Simms don't know that.' 'Because he's one of those people who has to believe that white people are better than black people to make himself feel big.' I stared questionably at Mama, not really understanding. Mama squeezed my hadn't and explained further, 'You see, Cassie, many years ago, when our people were fist brought from Africa in chains to work as slaves in this country--' 'Like Big Ma's Papa and Mama?' Mama nodded. "Yes, baby. Like Papa Luke and Mama Rachael. Except they were born right here is Mississippi, but their grandparents were born in Africa. And when they came, there was some white people who thought that is was wrong for any people to be slaves. So the people who needed slaves to work in their fields and the people who were making money bringing slaves from Africa preached that black people weren't really people like white people were, so slavery was all right. They also said that slavery was good for us because it thought us to be good Christians, like the white people.' She sighed deeply, her voice fading into a distant whisper, 'But they didn't teach us Christianity to save our souls, but to teach us obedience. They were afraid of slave revolts and they wanted us to learn the Bible's teachings about slaves being loyal to their masters. But even teaching Christianity didn't make us stop wanting to be free and many slaves ran away.”

Freedom Race Christianity Slavery Equality Oppression Inequality African Americans Mississippi Slaves Civil Liberty

Author:Mildred D. Taylor

“Mississippi is the shadow, the soul, and the skeleton closet of the nation. If America had ruins, Mississippi would be it. Every step you take got blood in the soil.”

Violence Blood Racism Mississippi

Book:Sky Full of Elephants

Source: Sky Full of Elephants

“Louis said, "There ought to be a comic book about geeks." Dr. McNaughton said, "There are books about geeks." He said, "There are?" Dr. McNaughton said, "I'll read you some Faulkner sometime. I'll read you some Eudora Welty, some Flannery O'Connor. Geeks, midgets, anything your heart desires. Better than comic books." Louis looked at his father. He said, "You'll read to me? Really?”

Reading Mississippi

Book:The Sharpshooter Blues

Source: The Sharpshooter Blues

“Drilling without thinking has of course been Republican party policy since May 2008. With gas prices soaring to unprecedented heights, that's when the conservative leader Newt Gingrich unveiled the slogan 'Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less'—with an emphasis on the now. The wildly popular campaign was a cry against caution, against study, against measured action. In Gingrich's telling, drilling at home wherever the oil and gas might be—locked in Rocky Mountain shale, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and deep offshore—was a surefire way to lower the price at the pump, create jobs, and kick Arab ass all at once. In the face of this triple win, caring about the environment was for sissies: as senator Mitch McConnell put it, 'in Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and Texas, they think oil rigs are pretty'. By the time the infamous 'Drill Baby Drill' Republican national convention rolled around, the party base was in such a frenzy for US-made fossil fuels, they would have bored under the convention floor if someone had brought a big enough drill.”

“The Lamar Life stationary carried on its letterhead an oval portrait of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, for whom the Company had been named: a Mississippian who had been a member of Congress, Secretary of the Interior under Cleveland, and a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, a powerful orator who had pressed for the better reconciliation of North and South after the Civil War.”

Congress Civil War Reconciliation Mississippi Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar Secretary Of The Interior U S Supreme Court

Book:On Writing

Source: On Writing

“The sky had cleared, and now the sun was overhead, already baking the wet ground so that you could see the humidity drifting lazily above the cotton stalks.”

Mississippi Mississippi Authors Mississippi Writers

Book:A Painted House

Source: A Painted House

“My rhythm was joined with that of the Mississippi seasons. To change would shift everything inside of me...”

Mississippi Mississippi Authors

Book:Them Bones

Source: Them Bones

“Then the light changed the water, until all about them the woods in the rising wind seemed to grow taller and blow inward together and suddenly turn dark. The rain struck heavily. A huge tail seemed to lash through the air and the river broke in a wound of silver.”

Mississippi Mississippi Authors Mississippi Writers The Wide Net

Book:The Collected Stories

Source: The Collected Stories

“Later they took him to Jackson and that explained it; he was crazy.”

Mississippi Mississippi Authors Mississippi Writers

Book:Follow Me Down

Source: Follow Me Down

“Between 1882 and 1968, more black people were lynched in MIssissippi than in any other state.”

American History 20th Century Black History 19th Century Mississippi Us History Lynching 1968 1882 Mississippi History

Book:Un conto ancora aperto

Source: Un conto ancora aperto

“In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy.”

American History Segregation Black History Mississippi Us History Jim Crow Kleptocracy Jim Crow Laws Mississippi History

Book:Un conto ancora aperto

Source: Un conto ancora aperto

“Sir Walter Scott created rank & caste in the South and also reverence for and pride and pleasure in them. Life on the Mississippi Don Quixote swept admiration for medieval chivalry-silliness out of existence. Ivanhoe restored it. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi”

Mississippi Mark Twain Sir Walter Scott

Book:Life On The Mississippi

Source: Life On The Mississippi

“In the course of our conversation, I learned that there were many cities in Central Asia where dark men and women are in control of the government. And I thought about Mississippi where more than half of the population is Negro, but one never hears of a colored person in the government. In fact, in the state Negroes cannot even vote. And you will never meet them riding in the sleeping car.”

Government Racism Asia African Americans Politicians Blacks Segregation Race Relations Mississippi Voting Rights

Book:Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

Source: Good Morning, Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings

“Patient: Where is Carey Street? Miss Ida: "Go stand out in the street and you'll find it.”

Mississippi Southern Fiction Southern Lit Poppykingthenovelseries Louisiana Bayou Mystery Miss Ida

Author:Toni Orrill, M.Ed.

“I have learn'd Poppy that people come an' go. Only Jesus is your true friend. And even He had Judas. Git rid of your Judas. Like your sister. Marc has lost his mind. Buying one gift for her an' anoth'r for Cherie. That boy bet'r git himself home. There's ain't no blessing in sin, I tell ya. The devil roams, he prowls Poppy and a man's heart is fertile territory.”

Mississippi Louisiana Southern Fiction Southern Lit Am Writing

Author:Toni Orrill

“Although relocating to a state he imagined he'd not even used in a sentence since grade school was not in his life plan, it had seemed like a glittering offer slid across a table off of which he couldn't afford to eat.”

Moving Forward Unemployment Coping Mississippi Relocation

Book:Small Orange Fruit

Source: Small Orange Fruit

“J.W. and Roy didn’t just snatch the childhood away from Emmett; they stole it from every single black child in Mississippi.”

Race Race Relations Mississippi Race America

Author:Bernice McFadden

“North Mississippi Party rentals proudly serves Corinth, New Albany, Oxford and Tupelo, MS and the surrounding areas. We provide bounce house rentals and more. We also rent water slides, casino gaming tables, tents for events and weddings, table and chair rentals, mechanical bull rentals, fun inflatables, cotton candy machines, concession rentals and more for backyard birthday parties, school functions, church picnics, corporate events and more.”

Party Mississippi North Rentals

Author:North Mississippi Party Rentals

“The moon was obscured by heavy clouds. January was already past the mid-mark and the early delta spring would soon be on them. Already on the night was the faint, fresh smell of buddings and the intimacy that comes from the warm delta air trapped between slumbering earth and lowering clouds.”

Spring Mississippi Delta

Book:Moon of the Wolf

Source: Moon of the Wolf

“I know why the best blues artist comes from Mississippi,” Hooker told an interviewer from Melody Maker in 1964. “Because it’s the worst state. You have the blues all right if you’re down in Mississippi.”

Mississippi Delta Blues

Book:Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music

Source: Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music

“I'm from the Mississippi delta originally.”

Mississippi Delta Mississippi Delta

Author:Little Milton

“I knew I had to write a good screenplay to be taken seriously, and I knew I needed to present Mississippi on visuals instead of just saying, 'Hey I wanted to film it in Mississippi.' It would seem like it was a hometown boy just wanting to be home.”

Writing Home Seems Wanted Film Boys Taken Needed Hey Visuals Screenplays Mississippi Hometown Just Saying

Author:Tate Taylor

“It's easy to forget history or give it a cliff notes. The cliff notes of history. But mainly, so much of what happens in 'Eyes on the Prize' happened in Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson, Mississippi isn't really known for any other touchstone to the movement, other than Medgar Evers being killed. There were sit-ins and riots and atrocities.”

Giving Happens Eye Easy Forget Known Happened Movement Notes Prize Cliffs Riot Mississippi Atrocities Touchstones Eye On The Prize Jackson Mississippi

Author:Tate Taylor

“That Mississippi sound, that Delta sound is in them old records. You can hear it all the way through.”

Way Sound Records Mississippi Muddy Delta Old Records Mississippi Delta

Author:Muddy Waters

“In the state of Mississippi, Many Years Ago, a boy of 14 years got a taste of Southern law.”

Years States Law Boys Taste Years Ago Southern Mississippi

Author:Phil Ochs

“My parents were working in a hospital in Memphis. But I didn't live there for any length of time that I remember. The first thing I remember is the town in Mississippi that I live in now, Charleston.”

Firsts Remember Parent Towns Length Hospitals Hospitality Mississippi Memphis Charleston

Author:Morgan Freeman

“The folks in Mississippi are saying, 'Thank God for Texas.'”

Folks Texas Thank God Be Grateful Thanksgiving Mississippi

Author:Kinky Friedman

“We're first on executions. We're 49th in funding public education. We're in a race with Mississippi for the bottom, and we're winning.”

Firsts Winning Race Bottom Execution Funding Mississippi Public Education

Author:Kinky Friedman

“It's easy to whip up resentment against anything that smacks with authority. Nobody ever organizes over pan handlers. So even if a cop is black, like the three arrested in Baltimore, or one dead in Mississippi, the hard left uses race as the underlying cause. It's why there are no defiant marches when policemen are killed.”

Ifs Hard Use Three Left Causes Easy Black Race Authority March Resentment Cop Organize Policemen Arrested Whips Mississippi Smack Baltimore

Author:Greg Gutfeld

“In the wake of this disaster, the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida should know that the United States Congress stands ready to help them in their time of need,.”

People Knows Needs Should States Helping United United States Ready Congress Disaster Florida Mississippi Louisiana Alabama Time Of Need

Author:Bill Frist

“A carriage will start from Washington in the morning, the passengers will breakfast at Baltimore, dine at Philadelphia, and sup in New York the same day.... Engines will drive boats 10 or 12 miles an hour, and there will be hundreds of steamers running on the Mississippi, as predicted years ago.”

Years Running Hours Morning New York Years Ago Miles Boat Breakfast Engines Passengers Mississippi Philadelphia Carriages Baltimore Dine

Author:Oliver Evans

“I call this my church house trilogy. Souls' Chapel really was music from the Mississippi Delta, which to me is a church within itself. The Delta is the church of American Roots music. The Badlands is a cathedral without a top on it. And the Ryman has been called the Mother Church of Country Music, but to me it's the Mother Church of American Music. If you can think it up, it's been done there. In my mind, this is kind of a spiritual odyssey as much as anything else, and I had the settings of three churches to make it in.”

“Everyone thinks because you're from the south you know everyone down there, but it's not like that; I never knew nothing about no Mississippi.”

Thinking Knows South Mississippi

Author:Buddy Guy

“It would appear that the state of Mississippi has decided to maintain white supremacy by murdering children.”

Children States White Decided White Supremacy Mississippi Supremacy

Author:Roy Wilkins

“I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust [tree].”

Littles Half Tree Horse Touched Leap Honey Slips Lightning Scratches Mississippi Ohio Streaks Turtles Wade Alligators Snapping Backwoods

Book:Sketches and eccentricities of Col. David Crockett,: of West Tennessee

Source: Sketches and eccentricities of Col. David Crockett,: of West Tennessee

“My wife is from Laurel, Mississippi, and she has a lot of relatives down in Louisiana, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport, Louisiana. We go down there a lot. We got married in New Orleans. She has a cousin who introduced me to swamp pop, which is sort of zydeco/Cajun music with a little uptempo pop swing. Now I'm a big zydeco fan, I'm a big swamp-music fan.”

Littles Bigs Wife Fans Married Pops My Wife Swings Cousin New Orleans Mississippi Louisiana Swamps Laurels Rouge Baton Music Fans Cajuns Baton Rouge

Author:Charlie Day

“On the breast of that huge Mississippi of falsehood called History, a foam-bell more or less is no consequence.”

History Huge Consequence Breasts Bells Falsehood Mississippi Foam

Book:Lectures and Essays in Criticism

Source: Lectures and Essays in Criticism

“I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.”

Band New Orleans Mississippi Toronto Been In Love Memphis Delta

Author:Robbie Robertson

“Men and women in my lifetime have died fighting for the right to vote: people like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered while registering black voters in Mississippi in 1964, and Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965 during the Selma march for voting rights.”

People Men Fighting Black Rights Men And Women Vote Died Lifetime Voting March Voters Mississippi Andrew Right To Vote Ku Klux Klan Viola Goodman

Author:Jeff Greenfield

“Grief is just so scary.... If we finally begin to cry all those suppressed tears, they will surely wash us away like the Mississippi River. That's what our parents told us. We got sent to our rooms for having huge feelings. In my family, if you cried or got angry, you didn't get dinner.”

Ifs Feelings Parent Rooms Grief Cry Tears Huge Rivers My Family Angry Scary Dinner Cried Mississippi Mississippi River

Author:Anne Lamott

“The second person to write a story about a young boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi wasn't a novelist, he was a typist.”

Writing Persons Stories Young Boys Slave Novelists Mississippi

Author:Seth Godin

“It is only when we speak what is right that we stand a chance at night of being blown to bits in our homes. Can we call this a free country, when I am afraid to go to sleep in my own home in Mississippi?... I might not live two hours after I get back home, but I want to be a part of setting the Negro free in Mississippi.”

Want Two Country Home Might Night Speak Bits Hours Chance My Own Sleep Setting Settings Get Back Going To Sleep Back Home Mississippi Free Country

Author:Fannie Lou Hamer

“Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who have wept, who've all longed and lost, who've all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you're not really any different from everyone else.”

Different Helping Lost Information Library Not Alone Mississippi Tokyo

Author:Maya Angelou

“And the fact that Emmett Till, a young black man, could be found floating down the river in Mississippi, as, indeed, many had been done over the years, this set in concrete the determination of people to move forward.”

People Men Years Done Facts Moving Young Found Black Determination Rivers Moving Forward Concrete Floating Mississippi Lynching Emmett Till

Author:Fred Shuttlesworth

“Well, you have to understand where we came from. We are not here because we decided 10 years ago that we were going to be x-size company, and, oh, yeah, Jackson would be a good headquarters. We work here in Mississippi because we started here, and we are certainly happy here. Those of us working out of Jackson intend to continue working out of Jackson.”

Years Wells Would Be Company Economy Years Ago Decided Yeah Size Work Out Mississippi Headquarters Where We Came

Author:Bernard Ebbers

“All the really great records or people who made them somehow came from Memphis or Louisiana or somewhere along the Mississippi River...And singers like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters gave me the feeling that they were right there, standing by the river.”

People Made Feelings Water Records Standing Rivers Singers Really Great Mississippi Louisiana Muddy Memphis Mississippi River Howlin Wolf

Author:John Fogerty

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Mississippi Quotes