Daniel Black Quotes & Sayings

That's why he'd bought her. He'd already imagined the children she'd bear and the cotton she'd pick and the house she'd clean every day of her life. — Daniel Black

Big don't mean ugly, and thin sho don't mean pretty. If a person wants to be pretty, they gotta walk pretty, talk pretty and act pretty. Can't nobody take pretty from you. — Daniel Black

Among us lived every spirit conceivable. Men who loved women, women who loved men. Women who loved women, men who loved men. These were not choices but life assignments. Everyone had one. — Daniel Black

Listen to what I'm tellin' you, boy! This is why we couldn't tell you the truth - 'cause you wasn't lookin' for the truth. You was lookin' for confirmation of what you already believed. The truth was starin' you in the face and you didn't want it. How the hell could I get away wit' killin' somebody and authorities never come? Huh? I know we in the country, but we ain't on Mars! That don't make no sense! But you couldn't swallow the truth that I had done changed, so you held on to the ignorance you always believed - that I was a mean, nasty, evil woman. That's what's wrong wit' the world. We don't let people change." She paused, frowning. "Sometimes, when people change, we change 'em right back into what they was 'cause the change don't fit how we know 'em. So people get tired of fightin' to make other folks see 'em differently. Most stop tryin'." TL — Daniel Black

Perhaps future generations, the beautiful ones unborn, would wonder how we survived it all. What would we say? Or, more probably, what would history say for us? It would not speak truth. Not whole truth. It could not. — Daniel Black

Our names told us who we were. They told us why we'd been sent. What was expected of us. We were not confused. We were not ashamed. We were not perfect, but we were excellent. — Daniel Black

Sometimes, when people think they're putting obstacles in your path, they're actually laying your stepping-stones. You just gotta recognize them as one and the same. — Daniel Black

They couldn't have known that slowly, year by year, the ocean's water would ingest a people's fury so completely that hurricanes would come each season and claim lives in recompense for Africans gone overboard. — Daniel Black

But remember this: you're strong because of your people - not in spite of them. — Daniel Black

God has a way of making sure you reach your destiny, regardless of what others do to you. — Daniel Black

God already knowed what you was gon' pray for befo' you was eva born. He done already took yo' requests into account when he was planning de world. — Daniel Black

We had been concerned with complex, invisible knowledge, when we should've also been searching for God in simple things. Senior — Daniel Black

Carrying a child is a sacred thing. There is a bond established between mother and child in the womb that lasts forever. The truth of this bond can never be erased. — Daniel Black

E all do it. We talk about people we don't like until they become famous. Then we love 'em. — Daniel Black

When we'd had slaves, we'd purchased people's labor - not their bodies! We never thought we owned someone's arms, legs, feet, heart. How was that possible? How much does an arm cost? A leg? Feet? Hands? How — Daniel Black

Evidence doesn't always convince people of the truth, [ ... ] especially when the lie is what they prefer. — Daniel Black

Some never spoke another word. Some never married. Some couldn't look at a woman again, even their own mothers and sisters. Some wanted to touch and hold lovers, but their arms could not embrace. — Daniel Black

another. "If you do find someone you like, just be careful. The heart'll — Daniel Black

By figuring out how the experience can help you move forward. That's the point of why it happened to you in the first place. There's something you're suppose to get from the moment that'll get you closer to your mission if you can see it. Most people can't. — Daniel Black

People determined to survive are willing to sacrifice anything to achieve that end. Captors — Daniel Black

What he liked about the Jordan was hat no one could hinder its flow. It has a mind all its own. Other's opinions of its size or depth didn't matter. Only God possessed the power to subvert its course. Whether viewers loved it or not was inconsequential. It was a river, and it was created to flow, and that was exactly what it did. And that's all it did. That was its purpose, and no one could alter that identity regardless of what they thought. — Daniel Black

Sometimes you have to grow up before you appreciate how you grew up. — Daniel Black

You can't lie a lifetime,son. Either you gon' tell the truth, or the truth's gon' tell on you — Daniel Black

A life of leisure destroys a child. When — Daniel Black

You have to get clear about the kind of life you can live here. Life can be lived anywhere, but not every life can be lived everywhere. — Daniel Black

Now we know that prophesies come to one generation and materialize in another. If — Daniel Black

Anybody can live good - soon as they decide the world can kiss they ass. — Daniel Black

He'd thought all weak men were sissies, and maybe they were, but Paul had shown him that not all sissies were weak. — Daniel Black

We were the Fon, the Ibo, the Hausa, the Ashanti, the Mandinka, the Ewe, the Tiv, and the Ga. We were the Fante, the Fulani, the Ijaw, the Mende, the Wolof, the Yoruba, the BaKongo, and the Mbundu. We were the Serere, the Akan, the Bambara and the Bassa. And we were proud. We knew our ancestors by name. They — Daniel Black

Don't give people god's power. Yeah, they have opinions and stuff, but they ain't got no power to change your world unless you give it to 'em. Keep the power you got. You'll need it. I promise. — Daniel Black

We were wonderful, but we were not flawless. We knew excellence because we knew failure. We were human beings. — Daniel Black

The pain of what happened next lives in our collective memory. It mauls our souls each day. Yet it must be told. Silence guarantees no healing. It promises that the child's life would be forgotten and that its mission might, one day, be thought significant. Silence is the enemy of history, and history is all we have. — Daniel Black

If you different, be different. People'll get used to it. They ain't got no other choice — Daniel Black

Denial makes people repeat what they aren't willing to acknowledge. — Daniel Black

Truth was, they died as we died. It made sense. The universe demands life for life. — Daniel Black

The power of speech does not rely upon meaning. Words carry energy all by themselves. They vibrate through the air, with the intention of the speaker, shaping consciousness and touching hearts whether understood or not. — Daniel Black

Occasionally, young men, too, were thus violated. They fought like cornered lions. It always took three or four crewmen to subdue one of our boys. — Daniel Black

We'd all been taught that, in a circle, there is no beginning, no end. Energy flows without ceasing. One can enter and exit without ever disrupting it. Something magical happens when people gather in a circle. Individual identities swirl into a collective self, which wields far more spiritual force than any one person alone. We — Daniel Black

It was a peculiar odor, the smell of sexual violation, a mixture of rotting flesh and underarm stench. They shivered even though the heat belowdecks would've suffocated the weak. Our desecrated brothers survived because, as best we could, we reminded them of who they were. — Daniel Black

Our body parts were the trademark, we believed, of a sacred, majestic people. Now the ugliness of our situation made us begin to loathe the body we'd once loved. It was a gradual occurrence at first, more a thought than a truth, but we knew that once planted, a seed soon reveals all that it bears. — Daniel Black