Josephine Baker Quotes

We must change the system of education and instruction. Unfortunately, history has shown us that brotherhood must be learned, when it should be natural.

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.

I’m not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.

We’ve got to show that blacks and whites are treated equally in the army. Otherwise, what’s the point of waging war on Hitler?

The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.

One day I realized I was living in a country where I was afraid to be black. It was only a country for white people. Not black. So I left. I had been suffocating in the United States… A lot of us left, not because we wanted to leave, but because we couldn’t stand it anymore… I felt liberated in Paris.

I think they must mix blood, otherwise the human race is bound to degenerate. Mixing blood is marvelous. It makes strong and intelligent men. It takes away tired spirits.

Until the March on Washington, I always had this little feeling in my stomach. I was always afraid. I couldn’t meet white American people. I didn’t want to be around them. But now that little gnawing feeling is gone. For the first time in my life I feel free. I know that everything is right now.

I believe in prayer. It’s the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

A violinist had a violin, a painer his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.

The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.

… I improvised, crazed by the music… Even my teeth and eyes burned with fever. Each time I leaped I seemed to touch the sky and when I regained earth it seemed to be mine alone.

Beautiful? It’s all a question of luck. I was born with good legs. As for the rest… beautiful, no. Amusing, yes.

Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”

“I was learning the importance of names — having them, making them — but at the same time I sensed the dangers. Recognition was followed by oblivion, a yawning maw whose victims disappeared without a trace.”

“I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.”

“It [the Eiffel Tower] looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty?”

“I wasn’t really naked.  I simply didn’t have any clothes on.”

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