Tales of Manhattan (1942)

Ethel Waters: Esther

Quotes 

• Esther : Luke, you gotta pray for things like that and you ain't never prayed for nottin' in your life and you knows it.

  Luke : Now, Esther, I wished for plenty, 'cept maybe I didn't bend my knee.

  Esther : Within' ain't prayin'! It ain't ourin' to keep. It's sinful to have so much money.

• Reverend Lazarus : You certain this come from up there and not from down there? It smell more like the devil than the Lawd.

  Esther : I reckon Moses didn't stop to figure how the devil sent the manna to the children of Israel out in the wilderness. He know'd de Lawd sent it, cause he believed in de Lawd!

  Reverend Lazarus : That's that dis is. Manna from heaven. Lawd done gone an' done it again. Praise the Lawd! Hallelujah!

• Esther : Wot you prayin' for an' believes in - you get! Matthew 21:22.

  Reverend Lazarus : Blessed and be poor, for that's all they git.

  Little Nicodemus (Robeson sequence) : Hey, Reverend, don't it jes say, blessed and be poor, in spirit?

  Reverend Lazarus : It all comes to the same thing! When you'se poor, you'se poor all over.