You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.
Josephine BakerRead
I wanted to get far away from those who believed in cruelty, so then I went to France, a land of true freedom, democracy, equality and fraternity.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to escape cruelty and seek a place that embodies ideals of freedom and equality.
Josephine Baker's quote reflects her longing to distance herself from environments that foster cruelty and oppression. By choosing France, she highlights her quest for a society that celebrates principles of freedom, democracy, equality, and fraternity—values she esteemed and wished to immerse herself in, showing the importance of seeking out communities that align with one's ethical beliefs and aspirations.
In practice
Use this quote in a speech about the importance of civil rights and social justice.
You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you.
I ran away from St. Louis, and then I ran away from the United States, because of that terror of discrimination.
Friends, to me for years St. Louis represented a city of fear... humiliation... misery and terror... A city where in the eyes of the white man a Negro should know his place and had better stay in it.
I did take the blows [of life], but I took them with my chin up, in dignity, because I so profoundly love and respect humanity.
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 have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more.
Those who have a tolerable knowledge of human nature will not stand in need of such lights.
Had it not been for slavery, the death penalty would have likely been abolished in America. Slavery became a haven for the death penalty.
To think that the affairs of this life always remain in the same state is a vain presumption; indeed they all seem to be perpetually changing and moving in a circular course. Spring is followed by summer, summer by autumn, and autumn by winter, which is again followed by spring, and so time continues its everlasting round. But the life of man is ever racing to its end, swifter than time itself, without hope of renewal, unless in the next that is limitless and infinite.
A lot of jobs don't allow you to be who you are. There is dignity in work only when it is work freely accepted.
I have finally decided to write my book on the spiritual life. I mean to put down as simply as possible the sort of ascetical or mystical teaching that I have been living and preaching so long. I call it 'Le Milieu Divin,' but I am being careful to include nothing esoteric and the minimum of explicit philosophy.
I may say that the only differences I expect to see revealed between the behavior of the rat and man (aside from enormous differences of complexity) lie in the field of verbal behavior.
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