Paul Laurence Dunbar famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

..we wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes- this debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Lying #Eye #Heart
I hope there is something worthy in my writings and not merely the novelty of a black face associated with the power to rhyme that has attracted attention.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Writing #Black #Attention
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,- When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings- I know why the caged bird sings!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Prayer #Heart #Wings
With our short sight we affect to take a comprehensive view of eternity. Our horizon is the universe.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Views #Sight #Horizon
Hope is tenacious. It goes on living and working when science has dealt it what should be its deathblow.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Hope #Goes On #Should
We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,- - This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be otherwise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see thus, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Dream #Lying #Heart
People are taking it for granted that [the Negro] ought not to work with his head. And it is so easy for these people among whom we are living to believe this; it flatters and satisfies their self-complacency.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Believe #Self #People
We wear the mask that grins and lies.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Lying #Mask
You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,You are soft as the nesting dove.Come to my heart and bring it restAs the bird flies home to its welcome nest.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Sweet #Love You #Home
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in, A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double; And that is life!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Smile #Laughing #Joy
Money is a great dignifier.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Money
Slight was the thing I bought, small was the debt I thought, Poor was the loan at best - God! but the interest!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Debt #Poor #Loan
What Joe Hamilton lacked more than anything else in the world was some one to kick him. Many a man who might have lived decently and become a fairly respectable citizen has gone to the dogs for the want of some one to administer a good resounding kick at the right time. It is corrective and clarifying.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Dog #Men #Citizens
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Prayer #Heart #Praying
It's all a farce, - these tales they tell About the breezes sighing, And moans astir o'er field and dell, Because the year is dying.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Years #Dying #Fields
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Bird #Caged Birds #Feels
A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in. A minute to smile and an hour to weep in. A pint of joy to a peck of trouble, And never a laugh but the moans come double. And that is life. A crust and a corner that makes love precious, With a smile to warm and tears to refresh us, And joy seems sweeter when cares come after, And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter. And that is life.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Laughter #Sleep #Laughing
We reduce the deity to vulgar fractions. We place our own little ambitions and label them ?divine messages?. With our short sight we affect to take a comprehensive view of eternity.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Ambition #Godly #Views
Poor conceited humanity! Interpreters of God indeed.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Godly #Conceited #Humanity
All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Work #Play #Toys
A song fluttered down in the form of a dove, And it bore me a message, the one word-Love!
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Life #Song #Messages
This, this indeed is to be accursed, For if we mortals love, or if we sing, We count our joys not by what we have, But by what kept us from that perfect thing.
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar

#Perfect #Joy

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