Jacques Roumain

The old men of the village of Mahotière say that the Mistress of the Water is a mulatto woman. At midnight she…

— Jacques Roumain

She sang a song that sounds like life; I mean it was sad. Délira knew no other types ofsongs. She didn't sing…

— Jacques Roumain

As they say, when a man begins to have bad luck, even clabber can break his head.

— Jacques Roumain

Misfortune is never invited. And it comes and sits at the table without permission and it eats, leaving nothing but bones.

— Jacques Roumain

And at dawn, the drums still beat on the sleepless plain like an unstoppable heart.

— Jacques Roumain

The sacrifice to Legba was completed; the Master of the Crossroads had taken the loas' mysterious routes back to his native Guinea.…

— Jacques Roumain

Experience is the cane of the blind.

— Jacques Roumain

You cannot eat a cluster of grapes at once, but it is very easy if you eat them one by one.

— Jacques Roumain

A tree is made to live in peace in the color of day and in friendship with the sun, the wind and…

— Jacques Roumain

Peasants are a rude lot, and hard: life has hardened their hearts, but they are thick and awkward only in appearance; you…

— Jacques Roumain

Back then we were better-behaved than you young boystoday; we were better instructed; so I start in my bestest French:Mademoiselle, from the…

— Jacques Roumain

Water. Its sunny track in the plain; its splashing in the garden canal, the sound it makes when in its course it…

— Jacques Roumain

At noon, you walk across a river. It is dry, with not this much water: it is just stones and pebbles. But…

— Jacques Roumain

Heaven has its business and earth has its business: those are two separate things. Heaven, that's the angels' pasture; they are happy;…

— Jacques Roumain