Quotes from Cane

Jean Toomer ·  144 pages

Rating: (6.8K votes)


“Men are apt to idolize or fear that which they cannot understand, especially if it be a woman.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Her Lips Are Copper Wire”

whisper of yellow globes
gleaming on lamp posts that sway
like bootleg licker drinkers in the fog

and let your breath be moist against me
like bright beads on yellow globes

telephone the power-house
that the main wires are insulate

(her words play up and down
dewy corridors of billboards)

then with your tongue remove the tape
and press your lips to mine
till they are incandescent”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Call them from their houses, and teach them to dream.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“If you have heard a Jewish cantor sing, if he has touched you and made your own sorrow seem trivial when compared with his, you will know my feeling when I follow the curves of her profile, like mobile rivers, to their common delta.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“It takes a well-spent lifetime, and perhaps more, to crystalize in us that for which we exist.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane



“Happy, Muriel? No, not happy. Your aim is wrong. There is no such thing as happiness. Life bends joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a way that no one may isolate them. No one should want to. Perfect joy, or perfect pain, with no contrasting element to define them, would mean a monotony of consciousness, would mean death.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Whats beauty anyway but ugliness if it hurts you?”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“You are the most sleepiest man I ever seed.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Night winds in Georgia are vagrant poets, whispering.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child, Karintha carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane



“But words is like th spots on dice: no matter how y fumbles em,
there's times when they jes wont
come.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“But words is like th spots on dice: no matter how y fumbles em, there's times when they jes wont come.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Her dress was of some fine, costly stuff. I suggested the park, and then added that the grass might stain her skirt. Let it get stained, she said, for where it came from there are others.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


“Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child, Karintha carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down.”
― Jean Toomer, quote from Cane


About the author

Jean Toomer
Born place: in Washington, D.C., The United States
Born date December 26, 1894
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Popular quotes

“«Natale una fesseria, zio?», disse il nipote di Scrooge; «sono sicuro che non pensi una cosa simile».
«Certo che la penso», disse Scrooge. «Buon Natale! Che diritto hai tu di essere allegro? Che ragione hai tu di essere allegro? Sei povero abbastanza».
«Andiamo, via», rispose allegro il nipote. «Che diritto hai tu di essere triste? Che ragione hai tu di essere scontento? Sei ricco abbastanza».”
― Charles Dickens, quote from A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings


“നിങ്ങളൊരുമിച്ചു നിന്നാൽ ഹസ്തിനപുരത്തിന് കപ്പം തന്ന് കാൽ വണങ്ങാത്ത ഒരു രാജാവും ലോകത്തിലുണ്ടാവില്ല. അതേതെങ്കിലും ആചാര്യൻ നിങ്ങളെ പഠിപ്പിക്കുന്നുണ്ടോ?............ശവം വീണു കാണാൻ കൊതിക്കുന്ന കൂളികൾ പല വേഷത്തിൽ ഈ കൊട്ടാരത്തിൽ കയറിയിറങ്ങുന്നുണ്ട്‌. ജ്യോതിഷക്കാരായിട്ടും ഋഷിമാരായിട്ടും. നിങ്ങൾ ഒരുമ്മിച്ചു കഴിയേണ്ടവരാണ്. അതു മാത്രം അവർ പറഞ്ഞുതരില്ല...(ഗാന്ധാരി )”
― M.T. Vasudevan Nair, quote from രണ്ടാമൂഴം | Randamoozham


“He looks at me. His face is dotted with raindrops but I think there are tears too.
'I love her. I always have. You know that.'
'And me?'
And I known he means how I feel about him and me kissing him.
'You're my friend, Gabriel.'
'Do you kiss all your friends like that?' But he asks it without the harshness of his other questions. It's a real question.
'Just you.”
― Sally Green, quote from Half Wild


“Her mouth has always lacked any type of filter, a problem exacerbated by her refusal to lie about anything. Two qualities guaranteed to turn every conversation into a battlefield.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from A Mad Zombie Party


“لقد تعلموا الكذب و أحبوه و عرفوا مواطن الجمال فيه ،ربما بدأ الأمر بريئاً على سبيل المزاح أو الغنج و الدعابة و اللعب . و حقيقة الأمر أن االبداية كانت ذرة ، و أن ذرة الكذب تلك تسربت الى قلوبهم و أعجبتهم !”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, quote from The Dream of a Ridiculous Man


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