The Good Lord Bird Quotes
"I was born a colored man and don't you forget it."
"Pa could outyell with his voice any white man who ever walked God's green earth, bar none."
"Your basic white pioneer weren’t no stranger to the notion of hope."
"The Lord's coming! He's a'comin' to gnash out your teeth and tear out your hair!"
"The Lord puts forth his hand and touches all evil and kills it."
"That which the palmerworm hath left, hath the locust eaten."
"I ain't master to you, Onion. You just as free as the birds run."
"The Bible says it, 'Hold no idle objects between thouest and me.'"
"I can't read, boss," he stammered. "I don't know what it says."
"You heard it. This here wagon belongs to Mr. Settles and I'm taking it home to him."
"Whatever you think you is, honey, I don’t think it’s proper that you unstring that dress from ’round yourself in front of ol’ Nigger Bob—a married man."
"That’s a hell of a thing to say ’bout somebody you don’t know."
"I wouldn’t ride to Dutch’s for a smooth twenty dollars. They’ll kill a nigger in there."
"If it look white and smell white, you can bet it ain’t buzzard."
"I’d rather blow my brains out than run around dressed like a girl. I can’t do it."
"You will be a hero to some in this territory if you do it."
"Every soul has got to learn to defend God’s word."
"It’s one thing to say you’s an abolitionist, but riding for weeks on the plains in winter, with no spare victuals, you weeding a bad hoe for satisfaction."
"I ain’t come here to read nobody’s Bible and fight nobody’s slavery."
"I ain’t got to tell you nothing ’bout fighting the Missourians."
"Being a girl ain’t what it’s cracked up to be."
"We got to give them slaveholders something to think about."
"I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done."
"I don’t know where I belongs, being a tragic mulatto and all."
"Quit crying for God’s sake, and I’ll give you a peppermint."
"I'm prepared to die fighting against the infernal institution."
"These house-born city-grubbers are good for talk only."
"Your colored woman knows no freedom. No dignity."
"They care not about the pounding of your silent and lustful heart."
"God pressed His thumb against the earth and made these passages for the poor."
"There ain’t nothing gets a Yankee madder than a smart colored person."
"I’d like to go back west to smell the spring air and fight the infernal institution."
"I has a plan that needs your military training and expertise."
"Being on the righteous side of His word is training enough."
"We are 'bout to unleash the true gladiators in this hellion against the infernal wickedness."
"A man with a cause, right or wrong, has got plenty to prove, and will make you suck sorrow if you get in the way of 'em wrongly."
"God don't need your prayers. He needs your action."
"God’ll take you however you come to Him. But it’s easier on a soul to come to Him clean."
"Compromise life before you compromise time. Time is the one thing you can't compromise."
"The Lord is in the blessing business, ain't He?"
"If they don’t mention the Blacksmith or the Rail Man in their first breath, draw your knife on 'em and make it count, for we is all blown."
"He who moves without trust cannot be trusted."
"Everything God made, all His things, all His treasures, all the things heaven sent ain't meant to be enjoyed in this world."
"A body can't prosper if a person don't know who they are."
"Being a Negro means showing your best face to the white man every day."
"You can play one part in life, but you can't be that thing. You just playing it."
"A good sign is signals from heaven. Good omens is important."
"How can somebody love you if you don't know who you is? How can you be free?"
"You is everything you are in this life at every moment."
"There is an eternity behind and an eternity before, that little speck at the center, however long, is life."
"I has done what the Lord has asked me to do in the little time I had."
"Hiving takes a while. Sometimes bees don’t hive for years."
"God’s mercy will spread its light on the world."
"Whatever you is, Onion, be it full. God is no respecter of persons."
"I loves you, Onion. Look in on my family from time to time."