Lorraine Hansberry Quotes

A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness, as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men - and people in general.

Though it be a thrilling and marvellous thing to be merely young and gifted in such times, it is doubly so - doubly dynamic - to be young, gifted and black.

One cannot live with sighted eyes and feeling heart and not know and read of the miseries which affect the world.

The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.

There is always something left to love. And if you haven't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.

Never be afraid to sit a while and think.

I care. I care about it all. It takes too much energy not to care.

Do I remain a revolutionary? Intellectually -- without a doubt. But am I prepared to give my body to the struggle or even my comforts? This is what I puzzle about.

This is one of the glories of man, the inventiveness of the human mind and the human spirit: whenever life doesn't seem to give an answer, we create one.

The grim possibility is that she who 'hides her brains' will, more than likely, end up with a mate who is only equal to a woman with 'hidden brains' or none at all.

Seems like God don't see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams - but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.

I think that the human race does command its own destiny and that that destiny can eventually embrace the stars.

Beneatha: You didn't tell us what Alaiyo means... for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something... ... Asagai: It means... it means One for Whom Bread--Food--Is Not Enough.

Sometimes, I can see the future stretched out in front of me - just as plain as day. The future hanging over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me.

I was born black and female.

I look at you and I see the final triumph of stupidity in the world!

Ah, I like the look of packing crates! A household in preparation for a journey! ... Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress...

Mama - Mama - I want so many things... I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy.

[T]here is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture -- in front of us -- our own little mirage that we think is the future.

Children see things very well sometimes and idealists even better.

That's what being eccentric means--being natural.

Obviously the most oppressed of any oppressed group will be its women

Take away the violence and who will hear the man of peace?

Our Southside is a place apart: each piece of our living is a protest.

I want to fly! I want to touch the sun!" "Finish your eggs first.

When a man knows that the abstraction ten exists - nothing on earth can stop him from looking for the fact of eleven.

Everybody talking 'bout heaven ain't going there!

It is difficult for the American mind to adjust to the realization that the Rhetts and the Scarletts were as much monsters as the keepers of Buchenwald-they just dressed more attractively.

I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love.

Ball points belong to their age. They make everyone write alike.

Once upon a time freedom used to be life-now it's money. I guess the world really do change.

It's dangerous, son.' 'What's dangerous?' 'When a man goes outside his house to look for peace.

American straightforwardness is almost as disarming as Americans invariably think it is.

One for whom bread- food- is not enough.

Take away the violence and who will hear the men of peace?

There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing.

[Beneatha Younger:]... He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Chrisitan fellowship. [excerpt from Act II, Scene 3]

I know he's rich. He knows he's rich, too.

The Murchisons are honest-to-God-real-foe-rich colored people, and the only people in the world who are more snobbish than rich white people are rich colored people. I though everybody knew that.

MAMA: You must not dislike people ’cause they well off, honey.BENEATHA: Why not? It makes just as much sense as disliking people ’cause they are poor, and lots of people do that.

Cause sometimes it's hard to let the future begin!

A woman who is willing to be herself and pursue her own potential runs not so much the risk of loneliness as the challenge of exposure to more interesting men and people in general.