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Quotes from Beloved — Toni Morrison

1931–2019 United States

← All quotes by Toni Morrison

24 quotes

Anything dead coming back to life hurts.

Beloved (1987)

Clever, but schoolteacher beat him anyway to show him that definitions belonged to the definers — not the defined.

Beloved (1987)

124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom.

Beloved (1987)

A man ain't nothing but a man. But a son? Well, now, that's somebody.

Beloved (1987)

If a Negro got legs he ought to use them. Sit down too long, somebody will figure out a way to tie them up.

Beloved (1987)

It is sprinkling now. A teasing August rain that raises expectations it cannot fill.

Beloved (1987)

More it hurt more better it is. Can't nothing heal without pain, you know.

Beloved (1987)

Unless carefree, motherlove was a killer.

Beloved (1987)

Would it be all right? Would it be all right to go ahead and feel? Go ahead and count on something?.

Beloved (1987)

Human life is holy, all of it.

Beloved (1987)

With that, she gathered her blanket around her elbows and ascended the lily-white stairs like a bride. Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter staars seemed permanent.

Beloved (1987)

Garner called and announced them men — but only on Sweet Home, and by his leave. Was he naming what he saw or creating what he did not?

Beloved (1987)

Beloved, you are my sister, you are my daughter, you are my face; you are me.

Beloved (1987)

"Tell me something, Stamp." Paul D's eyes were rheumy. "Tell me this one thing. How much is a nigger supposed to take? Tell me. How much?"

Beloved (1987)

Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

Beloved (1987)

He knew exactly what she meant: to get to a place where you could love anything you choose — not to need permission for desire — well now, that was freedom.

Beloved (1987)

They stayed that way for a while because neither Denver nor Sethe knew how not to: how to stop and not love the look or feel of the lips that kept on kissing.

Beloved (1987)

What's fair ain't necessarily true.

Beloved (1987)

This is not a story to pass on.

Beloved (1987)

She smiled then, at the memory of it. The smile broke in two and became a sudden suck of air, but she did not shudder of close her eyes. She wheeled.

Beloved (1987)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Toni Morrison (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.