A Raisin in the Sun Quotes With Page Numbers
“RUTH No—I’m just sleepy as the devil. What kind of eggs you want?
WALTER Not scrambled. (RUTH starts to scramble eggs)”~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Ruth, Act I, Scene I, Page 26
“DAMN MY EGGS! DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Wilson, Act I, Scene I, Page 34
“Something always told me I wasn’t no rich white woman.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, Act I, Scene I, Page 44
“Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams -but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, Act I, Scene I, Pages 45, 46
“I know he’s rich. He knows he’s rich, too.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, BENEATHA, Act I, Scene I, Page 48
“It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t accept. It’s not important. I am not going out and be immoral or commit crimes because I don’t believe in God. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no blasted God—there is only man and it is he who makes miracles!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, BENEATHA, Act I, Scene I, Page 50
“MAMA: You must not dislike people ’cause they well off, honey.
BENEATHA: Why not? It makes just as much sense as disliking people ’cause they are poor, and lots of people do that.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Act I, Scene I, Page 50
“Mama, you don’t understand. It’s all a matter of ideas, and God is just one idea I don’t acept. It’s not important. I am not going out and commit crimes or be immoral because I don’t believe in God. I don’t even think about it. It’s just that I get so tired of Him getting credit for all the things the human race achieves through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no God! There is only Man, and it’s he who makes miracles!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha, Act I, Scene I, Page 51
“(With feminine vengeance)”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, The narrator about BENEATHA, Act II, Scene II, Page 64
“Beneatha: You didn’t tell us what Alaiyo means… for all I know, you might be calling me Little Idiot or something…
…
Asagai: It means… it means One for Whom Bread–Food–Is Not Enough.”~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Act I, Scene II, Page 65
“Mama–Mama–I want so many things… I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter, Act I, Scene II, Page 74
“GEORGE : Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric.
BENEATHA: How can something that’s natural be eccentric?
GEORGE: That’s what being eccentric means—being natural. Get dressed.”~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, George, Act II, Scene I, Page 80
“How we gets to the place where we scared to talk softness to each other.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter, Act II, Scene II, Page 88
“You’re a nice-looking girl … all over. That’s all you need, honey, forget the atmosphere.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, George, Act II, Scene II, Page 96
“What you ain’t never understood is that I ain’t got nothing, don’t own nothing, ain’t never really wanted nothing that wasn’t for you. There ain’t nothing as precious to me…There ain’t nothing worth holding on to, money, dreams, nothing else–”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Act II, Scene II, Page 106
“Oh—Mama—they don’t do it like that any more. He talked Brotherhood. He said everybody ought to learn how to sit down and hate each other with good Christian fellowship.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, BENEATHA, Act II, Scene III, Page 121
“Cause sometimes it’s hard to let the future begin!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, RUTH, Act II, Scene II, Page 125
“It isn’t a circle–it is simply a long line–as in geometry, you know, one that reaches into infinity. And because we cannot see the end–we also cannot see how it changes. And it is very odd by those who see the changes–who dream, who will not give up–are called idealists…and those who see only the circle we call them the “realists”!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, ASAGAI, Act III, Page 134
“Perhaps I will be a great man…I mean perhaps I will hold on to the substance of truth and find my way always with the right course”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, ASAGAI, Act III, Page 135
“I will go home and much of what I will have to say will seem strange to the people of my village… But I will teach and work and things will happen, slowly and swiftly. At times it will seem that nothing changes at all… and then again… the sudden dramatic events which make history leap into the future. And then quiet again. Retrogression even. Guns, murder, revolution. And I even will have moments when I wonder if the quiet was not better than all that death and hatred. But I will look about my village at the illiteracy and disease and ignorance and will not wonder long. And perhaps… perhaps I will be a great man… I mean perhaps I will hold on to the substance of truth and find my way always with the right course… and perhaps for it I will be butchered in my bed some night by the servants of empire…
…or perhaps I shall live to be a very old man, respected and esteemed in my new nation … And perhaps I shall hold office and this is what I’m trying to tell you, Alaiyo: Perhaps the things I believe now for my country will be wrong and outmoded, and I will not understand and do terrible things to have things my way or merely to keep my power. Don’t you see that there will be young men and women—not British soldiers then, but my own black countrymen—to step out of the shadows some evening and slit my then useless throat? Don’t you see they have always been there … that they always will be. And that such a thing as my own death will be an advance? They who might kill me even … actually replenish all that I was.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, ASAGAI, Act III, Pages 135, 36
“Beneatha: Love him? There is nothing left to love.
Mama: There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. (Looking at her) Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself and for the family ’cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning – because that ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest and can’t believe in hisself ’cause the world done whipped him so! when you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha and Mama, Act III, Page 145
“Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning-because that ain’t the time at all…when you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Beneatha and Mama, Act III, Page 145
“When you starts measuring somebody, measure him right, child, measure him right. Make sure you done taken into account what hills and valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is.”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, Act II, Page 145
“MAMA (Quietly, woman to woman)
He finally come into his manhood today, didn’t he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain…
RUTH (Biting her lip, lest her own pride explode in front of Mama)
Yes, Lena.”~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Act III, Page 151
“Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most? When he’s done good and made things easy for everybody? That ain’t the time at all. It’s when he’s at his lowest……and he can’t believe in himself because the world’s whipped him so!”
~Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, Mama, Act III, Page 165
