Marian Anderson Quotes

#1. Prejudice is like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating.

Marian Anderson

#2. None of us is responsible for the ...

Marian Anderson

#3. I have a great belief in the future of my people and my country.

Marian Anderson

#4. A singer starts by having his instrument as a gift from God ... When you have been given something in a moment of grace, it is sacrilegious to be greedy.

Marian Anderson

#5. Prayer begins where human capacity ends.

Marian Anderson

#6. As long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you otherwise might.

Marian Anderson

#7. The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dare to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow.

Marian Anderson

#8. You cannot fool an audience.

Marian Anderson

#9. There are many persons ready to do what is right because in their hearts they know it is right. But they hesitate, waiting for the other fellow to make the make the first move - and he, in turn, waits for you.

Marian Anderson

#10. Sometimes you're overwhelmed when a thing comes, and you do not realize the magnitude of the affair at that moment. When you get away from it, you wonder, did it really happen to you.

Marian Anderson

#11. I suppose I might insist on making issues of things. But that is not my nature, and I always bear in mind that my mission is to leave behind me the kind of impression that will make it easier for those who follow.

Marian Anderson

#12. Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

Marian Anderson

#13. Where there is money, there is fighting.

Marian Anderson

#14. When you stop having dreams and ideals - well, you might as well stop altogether.

Marian Anderson

#15. Sometimes, it's like a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't feel it with your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is irritating. (regarding prejudice and discrimination)

Marian Anderson

#16. A person has to be busy to be alive.

Marian Anderson

#17. You lose a lot of time, hating people.

Marian Anderson

#18. When I sing, I don't want them to see that my face is black. I don't want them to see that my face is white. I want them to see my soul. And that is colorless.

Marian Anderson

#19. You can't build a chimney from the top, you know.

Marian Anderson

#20. Everyone has a gift for something, even if it is the gift of being a good friend.

Marian Anderson

#21. I had gone to Europe ... to reach for a place as a serious artist, but I never doubted that I must return. I was - and am - an American.

Marian Anderson

#22. None of us is responsible for the complexion of his skin. This fact of nature offers no clue to the character or quality of the person underneath.

Marian Anderson

#23. If you have a purpose in which you can believe, there's no end to the amount of things you can accomplish.

Marian Anderson

#24. I forgave the DAR many years ago. You lose a lot of time hating people.

Marian Anderson