The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
It is astonishing that in a country so devoted to the individual, so many people should be afraid to speak. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
People can cry much easier than they can change, a rule of psychology people like me picked up as kids on the… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Most people... find a disorientating mismatch between the long-term nature of their liabilities and the increasingly short-term nature of their assets. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors. It's astounding to me, for example, that… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
It was as though we were a picture, trapped in time: this had been happening for hundreds of years, people sitting in… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
I really do believe in the New Jerusalem. I really do believe that we can all become better than we are. I… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Words like 'freedom', 'justice' and 'democracy' are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
When Americans look out on the world, they see nothing but dark and menacing strangers who appear to have no sense of… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Art has to be a kind of confession. I don't mean a true confession in the sense of that dreary magazine. The… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
People who have been wronged will attempt to right the wrong; they would not be people if they didn't. They can rarely… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors. It's astounding to me, for example, that… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
I think Americans are terrified of feeling anything. I never met a people more infantile in my life. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
Negro servants have been smuggling odds and ends out of white homes for generations, and white people have been delighted to have… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
James Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-- but it may be that nightmare from which no one can awaken. People… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share Image
I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
The white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
The American ideal of sexuality appears to be rooted in the American ideal of masculinity. This idea has created cowboys and Indians, good guys… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this,… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
We take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet it is precisely… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
The American ideal is, after all, that everyone should be as much alike as possible. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
James Joyce is right about history being a nightmare-- but it may be that nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
I think Americans are terrified of feeling anything. I never met a people more infantile in my life. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
Unless a writer is extremely old when he dies, in which case he has probably become a neglected institution, his death must always be… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved… — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
A devotion to humanity is... too easily equated with a devotion to a Cause, and Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
Most people... find a disorientating mismatch between the long-term nature of their liabilities and the increasingly short-term nature of their assets. — James A. Baldwin Copy Share
