A Lesson Before Dying Quotes
"Either I sat behind my aunt and his godmother or I sat beside them."
"Gentlemen of the jury, look at this—this—this boy. I almost said man, but I can't say man."
"What you see here is a thing that acts on command."
"We may see him as not much, but he's her reason for existence."
"For God's sake, be merciful. He is innocent of all charges brought against him."
"I don't want them to kill no hog, I want a man to go to that chair, on his own two feet."
"Jefferson is dead. It is only a matter of weeks, maybe a couple of months—but he's already dead."
"Let not your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me."
"They're going to sit him in a chair, they're going to tie him down with straps, they’re going to connect wires to his head, to his wrists, to his legs, and they’re going to shoot electricity through the wires into his body until he's dead."
"I don’t want him doing nothing he don’t want do."
"Nothing pleases me more than when I hear of something wrong."
"The only thing you can do is just aggravate him, trying to put something in his head against his will."
"You want to know about life? Well, it’s too late. Forget it."
"Everything you sent me to school for, you’re stripping me of it."
"All the things you wanted me to escape by going to school."
"Years ago, Professor Antoine told me that if I stayed here, they were going to break me down to the nigger I was born to be."
"I’m so sorry. And I wished they had somebody else we could turn to. But they ain’t nobody else."
"Maybe today they’ll want to look into my mouth, or my nostrils, or make me strip. Anything to humiliate me."
"Just a old hog they fattening up to kill for Christmas."
"You love them more than you hate this place."
"You’re a lady of quality. Quality ain’t cheap."
"Don’t give up God. No matter what, don’t ever do that."
"You ain’t no hog, you hear me? You ain’t no hog."
"I do everything I know how to do to keep people like him from going there."
"The Lord don’t hate you, Sister Emma. The Lord is with you this moment. He is only testing you."
"Hogs don’t know anything, Jefferson. Only human beings know. Only human beings worry."
"I love you more and more. If you’d just say the word, God knows I’d drop everything."
"Even with book learning, we were still fools if we did not have God in our hearts."
"How do people come up with a date and time to take life from another man? Who made them God?"
"Twelve white men say a black man must die, and another white man sets the date and time without consulting one black person. Justice?"
"I’m going for a walk, a long walk in the opposite direction. Excuse me."
"A hero does for others. He would do anything for people he loves because he knows it would make their lives better."
"I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be."
"I don’t want them to feel safe with you anymore."
"I need you to tell me, to show me. I’m no hero; I can just give something small. That’s all I have to offer."
"It is the only way that we can chip away at that myth. You—you can be bigger than anyone you have ever met."
"You have the chance of being bigger than anyone who has ever lived on that plantation or come from this little town. You can do it if you try."
"All of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood, until we—each one of us, individually—decide to become something else."
"I cry, not from reaching any conclusion by reasoning, but because, lowly as I am, I am still part of the whole."
"You think that’s all they sent you to school for? They sent you to school to relieve pain, to relieve hurt—and if you have to lie to do it, then you lie."
"She been lying every day of her life, your aunt in there. That’s how you got through that university—cheating herself here, cheating herself there, but always telling you she’s all right."
"You lie and you lie and you lie. When you tell yourself you feeling good when you sick, you lying."
"She would start her planting the week after Easter if the ground was dry enough."
"I believe in God, Reverend," I said, looking beyond the rows of turned-up earth, toward the budding pecan trees across the road. "I believe in God. Every day of my life I believe in God."
"You’re just lost. That’s all. You’re just lost."
"I’m the one that’s educated. I know my people. I know what they gone through."
"I’m go’n do my best, Mr. Wiggins. That’s all I can promise. My best."
"My eyes were closed before this moment, Jefferson. My eyes have been closed all my life. Yes, we all need you. Every last one of us."
"I didn’t start it. Maybe you didn’t. But you were ready."
"I need you, honey. I need you to stand with me. He’s got only a few more weeks. I need you now more than ever."
"Nobody that pretty never kiss me an when yall left i come to the door an i look at her long long is i coud and coud smell her poder cent and still feel her mof on my face."
"Nobody aint never been that good to me an make me think im sombody."
"Sun goin down an i kno this the las one im gon ever see but im gon see one mo sunrise cause i aint gon sleep tonite."
"I been shakin an shakin but im gon stay strong."
"I dont know if they got a heven cause samson say they cant be an boo say they aint non fo no niger but reven ambros say they is one for all men an bok dont kno."
"When i was a litle boy i was a waterboy an rode the cart but now i got to be a man an set in a cher."
"The bird in the tre soun like a blu bird sky blu blu mr wigin."
"Good by mr wigin tell them im strong tell them im a man good by mr wigin im gon ax paul if he can bring you this."
"Yet they must believe. They must believe, if only to free the mind, if not the body. Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free."