QuoteProject
Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.
Zora Neale Hurston
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects resilience and the influence of heritage on personal strength.

Zora Neale Hurston's quote emphasizes the powerful presence of her ancestry as a motivating force in her life. Rather than allowing the weight of historical oppression to bring her down, she acknowledges it as a reminder of strength and resilience, suggesting that our backgrounds can inspire us to rise above adversity rather than succumb to it.

Themes

ResilienceHeritageStrengthOppressionIdentity

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about overcoming challenges, use this quote to emphasize the importance of heritage.

More from Zora Neale Hurston

It seems that fighting is a game where everybody is the loser.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Lack of power and opportunity passes off too often for virtue.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
From barren brown stems to glistening leaf-buds; from the leaf-buds to snowy virginity of bloom…It was like a flute song forgotten in another existence and remembered again. What? How? Why? This singing she heard that had nothing to do with her ears. The rose of the world was breathing out smell. It followed her through all her waking moments and caressed her in her sleep.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Don't you realize that the sea is the home of water? All water is off on a journey unless it's in the sea, and it's homesick, and bound to make its way home someday.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
Two things everybody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves.
Zora Neale HurstonRead
There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons his own food.
Zora Neale HurstonRead

Similar quotes

I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.
John Patrick ShanleyRead
She explained that the bullet had entered through the side of my left eye where there was a scar, traveled eighteen inches down to my left shoulder and stopped there. It could have taken out my eye or gone into my brain. It was a miracle I was alive.
Malala YousafzaiRead
Where is your ancient courage? You were used to say extremities was the trier of spirits; That common chances common men could bear; That when the sea was calm all boats alike showed mastership in floating.
William ShakespeareRead
I saw the bombs, and, like a kid, I looked back at them. Instantly there was fire everywhere.
Phan Thi Kim PhucRead
We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?
Ernest GainesRead
Without a sign, his sword the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause.
HomerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.