Josephine Baker > Quotes

“The things we truly love stay with us always, locked in our hearts as long as life remains.”
― Josephine Baker

“He was my cream, and I was his coffee -
And when you poured us together, it was something.”
― Josephine Baker

“I'm not intimidated by anyone. Everyone is made with two arms, two legs, a stomach and a head. Just think about that.”
― Josephine Baker

“Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”
― Josephine Baker

“A violinist had a violin, a painter his palette. All I had was myself. I was the instrument that I must care for.”
― Josephine Baker

“I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on.”
― Josephine Baker

“...It looked very different from the Statue of Liberty, but what did that matter? What was the good of having the statue without the liberty, the freedom to go where one chose if one was held back by one's color? No, I preferred the Eiffel Tower, which made no promises."
~ Josephine Baker, once she had seen the Eiffel Tower”
― Josephine Baker

“Is that what they call a vocation, what you do with joy as if you had fire in your heart, the devil in your body?
”
― Josephine Baker

“We must change the system of education and instruction. Unfortunately, history has shown us that brotherhood must be learned, when it should be natural.”
― Josephine Baker

“I like Frenchmen very much, because even when they insult you they do it so nicely.”
― Josephine Baker

“Quite simply, I’ve always been in love. For me, artists, a man or a woman, who doesn’t have a sense of seduction, the gift of love, faith in the mysterious rendezvous, is not an artist. Art, you know, is seduction, passion, the pursuit in its life in the most inspiring, most beautiful, sweetest things.”
― Josephine Baker, Fearless and Free: A Memoir

“You must get an education. You must go to school, and you must learn to protect yourself. And you must learn to protect yourself with the pen, and not the gun.”
― Josephine Baker

“The secret to the fountain of youth is to think youthful thoughts.”
― Josephine Baker