I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed... I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own.
Paul RobesonRead
When I sang my American folk melodies in Budapest, Prague, Tiflis, Moscow, Oslo, or the Hebrides or on the Spanish front, the people understood and wept or rejoiced with the spirit of the songs. I found that where forces have been the same, whether people weave, build, pick cotton, or dig in the mine, they understand each other in the common language of work, suffering, and protest.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the universal power of music and the shared experiences of humanity across different cultures.
In this quote, Paul Robeson reflects on his experiences singing American folk melodies in various cities around the world. He emphasizes that regardless of geographical or cultural differences, people can connect emotionally through music, as it resonates with their shared experiences of labor, suffering, and protest. The songs become a common language that transcends boundaries and creates empathy among listeners.
Themes
MusicUniversalHumanityConnectionEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a speech on the importance of cultural exchange through the arts.
More from Paul Robeson
All quotes βWe ask for nothing that is not ours by right, and herein lies the great moral power of our demand.
Paul RobesonRead
My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave.
Paul RobesonRead
The intolerance of the few, or the risk of it, carries the day against the wider humanity of the many.
Paul RobesonRead
I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom
Paul RobesonRead
And at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists.
Paul RobesonRead
Similar quotes
There is no sound more feminine than a woman in a taffeta dress.
Oscar De La RentaRead
Most people think I paint fast. I paint very slowly.
Claude MonetRead
The crown of literature is poetry. It is its end and aim. It is the sublimest activity of the human mind. It is the achievement of beauty and delicacy. The writer of prose can only step aside when the poet passes.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Langston HughesRead
We write because we believe the human spirit cannot be tamed and should not be trained.
Nikki GiovanniRead
The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.
Penelope LivelyRead