Mississippi Quotes - Page 8

• I've always been in love with that Delta-flavored music the music that came from Mississippi and Memphis and, especially, New Orleans. When I was 14, I was in a wanna-be New Orleans band in Toronto.

  Robbie Robertson

  New Orleans, Band, Toronto

  "POP MUSIC : Robertson Rides Rock Train Again". Interview with Robert Hilburn, articles.latimes.com. September 29, 1991.

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• I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

  Maya Angelou

  Rivers, West, Sometimes

  "At 80, Maya Angelou Reflects on a 'Glorious' Life". "Weekend Edition" with Lynn Neary, www.npr.org. April 6, 2008.

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• I'm that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half-horse, half-alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning, and slip without a scratch down a honey locust [tree].

  Davy Crockett

  Horse, Turtles, Ohio

  Davy Crockett (1834). “Sketches and eccentricities of Col. David Crockett,: of West Tennessee”, p.164

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• The Mississippi and its paddle boats, and the rivers of Bengal and their gleaming steamers evoked a similar atmosphere of romance, of long, song-filled voyages, high winds and lonely sunsets.

  Qurratulain Hyder

  Song, Lonely, Sunset

  Qurratulain Hyder (2010). “Fireflies in the Mist”, p.3, New Directions Publishing

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• Coming from the South, I just felt you had to work just a little bit harder. It was not going to be handed to you. I’d get the letters from all the major schools but no one came out to talk to me face to face until this small, dominant black school, Mississippi State Valley University sent a coach out to me. I had a chance to talk to him and he said, ‘Hey Jerry, we’re going to be doing some great things at Mississippi Valley State University and we would love to have you there.’

  Jerry Rice

  School, Black, Littles

  "The Secrets To Jerry Rice’s Hall Of Fame Football Career Can Be Found In Crawford, Mississippi". Interview with Chris Greenberg, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 22, 2013.

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• New Orleans is of such key importance to American music because historical factors combined to make it the strongest center of African musical practice in the United States, and, cliches aside, that practice really did travel up the Mississippi and did spread overland.

  Ned Sublette

  Practice, Keys, New Orleans

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• In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. Therefore, in the Old Silurian Period the Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long, seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesome returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

  Mark Twain

  Years, Two, Rivers

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• I was just a small boy from Mississippi, and now little kids are going to identify with me through this game.

  Jerry Rice

  Kids, Boys, Games

  Interview With Jon Robinson, www.ign.com. May 1, 2007.

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• I did not believe what I was told about being poor and black and female in Mississippi in 1954.

  Oprah Winfrey

  Believe, Black, Female

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• My grandmother was born in 1900, and she would regale me with tales I call 'Little House on the Prairie' tales, but they were tales of segregated and racist America growing up in Alabama and Mississippi, where she came from.

  David Alan Grier

  Growing Up, Grandmother, America

  "David Alan Grier's 'Sporting Life' On Broadway". "Fresh Air", www.npr.org. May 22, 2012.

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• Religious people use 10% more pornography than secular people. The biggest consumers of pornography are Utah and Mississippi. All that religious preaching does no good.

  Darrel Ray

  Religious, Utah, People

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• An economy cannot long remain prosperous by government's taxing and spending more, now absorbing national output at a rate equal to the entire income of every American living west of the Mississippi. If this trend continues, America will gradually sink into the status of a Third World nation - more unemployment, more shackles on production, more poverty.

  John Hospers

  Government, America, Long

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• Liberals believe that crime is inextricably linked with poverty. In reality, most poor people never resort to crime, and some wealthy people commit evil acts to enrich themselves further. Harlem, East Los Angeles, the South side of Chicago are not the poorest communities in the United States. According to a new U.S. Bureau of the Census report, the poorest communities are Shannon County, South Dakota, followed by Starr, Texas, and Tunica, Mississippi. Have you ever heard of these residents rioting to protest their living conditions?

  Rush Limbaugh

  Life, Believe, Reality

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• Water seeks its own level. Look at them. The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze. The world's great rivers. And every one of them finds its way to the ocean.

  Alison McGhee

  Ocean, Rivers, Water

  Alison McGhee (2013). “All Rivers Flow to the Sea”, p.27, Candlewick Press

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• I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Dream, Oasis, Justice

  "Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech is the greatest oration of all time" by Sean O'Grady, www.independent.co.uk. April 3, 2018.

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• The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise.

  Mark Twain

  Engineering, Skills, Rivers

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• All good New Orleanians go to look at the Mississippi at least once a day. At night it is like creeping into a dark bedroom to look at a sleeping child--something of that sort--gives you the same warm nice feeling, I mean.

  Sherwood Anderson

  Children, Nice, Mean

  Sherwood Anderson (1997). “Southern Odyssey: Selected Writings by Sherwood Anderson”, p.19, University of Georgia Press

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• I could never live happily in Africa-or anywhere else-until I could live freely in Mississippi.

  Alice Walker

  Justice, Diversity, Live Free

  Alice Walker (2013). “The Alice Walker Collection: Non-Fiction”, p.74, Hachette UK

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• In Mississippi, you don’t admit that you’re gay. It’s just an awkward thing down South, which is sad.

  Lance Bass

  Gay, Awkward, South

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• Egyptian pyramids or obelisks – seemed to be the basis of the great memorials that have kept their significance and dignity across time. Neither an obelisk nor a rectangular box nor a dome seemed right on this site or for this purpose. But here, at the edge of the Mississippi River, a great arch did seem right.

  Eero Saarinen

  Rivers, Arches, Domes

  "Eero Saarinen on His Work: A Selection of Buildings Dating from 1947 to 1964 with Statements by the Architect".

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• This is not the party of Reagan. Today the conservative movement took a backseat to liberal Democrats in the state of Mississippi.

  Chris McDaniel

  Party, Movement, Today

  "Chris McDaniel Accuses GOP Of ‘Abandoning The Conservative Movement’ After Runoff Loss" by Mollie Reilly, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 25, 2014.

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• Baseball is the president tossing out the first ball of the season. And a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm.

  Ernie Harwell

  Baseball, Dad, President

  Ernie Harwell (1986). “Tuned to Baseball”, Taylor Trade Publishing

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• In the '50s, listening to Elvis and others on the radio in Bombay - it didn't feel alien. Noises made by a truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi, seemed relevant to a middle-class kid growing up on the other side of the world. That has always fascinated me.

  Salman Rushdie

  Growing Up, Kids, Class

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• Nothing rekindles my spirits, gives comfort to my heart and mind, more than a visit to Mississippi... and to be regaled as I often have been, with a platter of fried chicken, field peas, collard greens, fresh corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes with French dressing... and to top it all off with a wedge of freshly baked pecan pie.

  Craig Claiborne

  Food, Heart, Pie

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• I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.

  Kathryn Stockett

  Book, Order, California

  Kathryn Stockett (2009). “The Help”, p.81, Penguin

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