Jean Toomer
Jean Toomer
Jean Toomerwas an African American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance and modernism. His first book Cane, published in 1923, is considered by many to be his most significant...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 December 1894
CountryUnited States of America
merit
We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them.
art get-well sick-world
In a sick world, it is the first duty of the artist to get well.
running men trying
Men try to run life according to their wishes; life runs itself according to necessity.
ideas old-habits break
To understand a new idea, break an old habit.
priorities faithful sacred
The only way to seek God is to seek God first. Deny the nayward, affirm the yeaward, be true to those stirrings and motions which He starts in us, refuse priority to all else, and be faithful to the sacred.
imagination missing enough
We do not posses imagination enough to sense what we are missing.
flower bells thunder
Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads, Great, hollow, bell-like flowers
life experience rope
We learn the rope of life by untying its knots.
philosophical existence humans
We never know we are beings till we love. And then it is we know the powers and potentialities of human existence.
dream thinking enough
Talk about it only enough to do it. Dream about it only enough to feel it. Think about it only enough to understand it. Contemplate it only enough to be it.
novices masters
Most novices picture themselves as masters - and are content with the picture. This is why there are so few masters.
nooses
Fear is a noose that binds until it strangles.
pain mean perfect
There is no such thing as happiness. Life bends joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a way that no one may isolate them. No one should want to. Perfect joy, or perfect pain, with no contrasting element to define them, would mean a monotony of consciousness, would mean death
sweet land tree
O land and soil, red soil and sweet-gum tree, So scant of grass, so profligate of pines