Claude McKay Quotes

• Human dignity is more precious than prestige.

  Claude McKay

  Dignity, Prestige, Human Dignity

  102 Copy quote

• If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.

  Claude McKay

  Inspirational, Faith, Men

  Claude McKay, Gene Andrew Jarrett (1937). “A Long Way from Home”, p.82, Rutgers University Press

  149 Copy quote

• I know the dark delight of being strange, The penalty of difference in the crowd, The loneliness of wisdom among fools.

  Claude McKay

  Loneliness, Dark, Differences

  Claude McKay, William J. Maxwell (2004). “Complete Poems”, p.348, University of Illinois Press

  93 Copy quote

• We are like trees. We wear all colors naturally.

  Claude McKay

  Color, Tree

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• If we must die, let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, If we must die, O let us nobly die.

  Claude McKay

  Dignity, Spots, Hog

  Claude McKay (2012). “Selected Poems”, p.60, Courier Corporation

  90 Copy quote

• It's when you are down that you learn about your faults.

  Claude McKay

  Faults

  Claude McKay (1973). “The passion of Claude McKay: selected poetry and prose, 1912-1948”, Schocken

  53 Copy quote

• Idealism is like a castle in the air if it is not based on a solid foundation of social and political realism.

  Claude McKay

  Reality, Air, Political

  53 Copy quote

• Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is thwarted they are dwarfed and overshadowed.

  Claude McKay

  Development, Plant, Grows

  55 Copy quote

• If we must die, O let us nobly die.

  Claude McKay

  Dies, Ifs

  Claude McKay (2012). “Selected Poems”, p.60, Courier Corporation

  31 Copy quote

• Deep in the secret chambers of my heart I muse my life-long hate, and without flinch I bear it nobly as I live my part.

  Claude McKay

  Hate, Heart, Long

  Claude McKay, William Maxwell (2004). “Complete Poems”, p.162, University of Illinois Press

  23 Copy quote

• Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted,
  I shun all signs of anchorage, because
  The zest of life exceeds the bound of laws.

  Claude McKay

  Adventure, Zest, Law

  Claude McKay, William Maxwell (2004). “Complete Poems”, p.191, University of Illinois Press

  29 Copy quote

• And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

  Claude McKay

  Way, Hungry, Familiar

  Claude McKay, Gene Andrew Jarrett (1937). “A Long Way from Home”, p.94, Rutgers University Press

  29 Copy quote

• Upon the clothes behind the tenement, That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines, Linking each flat, but to each indifferent, Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.

  Claude McKay

  Clothes, Shining, Lines

  Claude McKay (1953). “Selected poems”

  27 Copy quote

• The shivering birds beneath the eaves Have sheltered for the night.

  Claude McKay

  Night, Bird

  Claude McKay (2012). “Selected Poems”, p.49, Courier Corporation

  20 Copy quote

• I have forgotten much, but still remember The poinsiana's red, blood-red in warm December.

  Claude McKay

  Blood, Red, December

  12 Copy quote

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