“Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occuring beneath the sea, time flowed past indiffrently above us, hours and… — James Baldwin Life Copy Share Image
“We cannot escape our origins, however hard we try, those origins which contain the key -could we but find it- to all… — James Baldwin Escape Copy Share Image
“But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.” — James Baldwin Books Copy Share Image
“What kind of friendship have you had? Or for that matter...what kind of love affairs?” — James Baldwin Affairs Copy Share Image
“We stared at each other across a narrow space that was full of danger, that almost seemed to roar, like flame. ‘Come,’… — James Baldwin Danger Copy Share Image
“The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“She was in a terrible state, for she found that she could neither take her eyes off him nor look at him.” — James Baldwin Eyes Copy Share Image
“And they didn't even read; depressed populations don't have the time or energy to spare. The affluent populations, which should have been… — James Baldwin Books Copy Share Image
“all that befell: in her joys, her pipe in the evening, her man at night, the children she suckled, and guided on… — James Baldwin Children Copy Share Image
“There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who know that he is going under in his own eyes,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Incontestably, alas, most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries… — James Baldwin Miracle Copy Share Image
“To accept one's past - one's history - is not the same things as drowning in it. An invented past can never… — James Baldwin History Copy Share Image
“I kissed her salty tears and murmured, murmured I don’t know what. I felt her body straining, straining to meet mine and… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“And her mother still struggled in these white kitchens in town, humming sweet hymns, tiny, mild eyed and bent, her father still… — James Baldwin Mother Copy Share Image
“And he suddenly takes the bag of tomatoes and smashes them against the nearest wall. Thank God the wall is blank, thank… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“And these nights were being acted out under a foreign sky, with no one to watch, no penalties attached—it was this last… — James Baldwin Freedom Copy Share Image
“Being in trouble can have a funny effect on the mind. I don't know if I can explain this. You go through… — James Baldwin Psychology Copy Share Image
“Now, from this night, this coming morning, no matter how many beds I find myself in between now and my final bed,… — James Baldwin Night Copy Share Image
“Yes, it does indeed mean something—something unspeakable—to be born, in a white country, an Anglo-Teutonic, antisexual country, black. You very soon, without… — James Baldwin Black people Copy Share Image
“I have been carried into precinct basements often enough, and I have seen and heard and endured the secrets of desperate white… — James Baldwin Men and women Copy Share Image
“When he was dead I realized that I had hardly ever spoken to him. When he had been dead a long time… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In the culture to be born there will no doubt be old and new elements. How these elements will be mixed is… — James Baldwin Old and new Copy Share Image
“The fear that I heard in my father’s voice, for example, when he realized that I really believed I could do anything… — James Baldwin Fear Copy Share Image
“Is it possible to describe as a culture what may simply be, after all, a history of oppression? That is, is this… — James Baldwin History Copy Share Image
“And the others, who have avoided all of these deaths, get up in the morning and go downtown to meet “the man.”… — James Baldwin Death Copy Share Image
“The projects are hideous, of course, there being a law, apparently respected throughout the world, that popular housing shall be as cheerless… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Only a man can see in the face of a woman the girl she was. It is a secret which can be… — James Baldwin America Copy Share Image
“The trouble with a secret life is that it is very frequently a secret from the person who lives it and not… — James Baldwin Dreams Copy Share Image
“Many have given up. They stay home and watch the TV screen, living on the earnings of their parents, cousins, bothers, or… — James Baldwin Apathy Copy Share Image
“The summer ended. Day by day, and taking its time, the summer ended. The noises in the street began to change, diminish,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I was just as black as I had been the day that I was born. Therefore, when I faced a congregation, it… — James Baldwin Christianity Copy Share Image
“No. It would help if I were able to feel guilty.But the end of innocence is also the end of guilt” — James Baldwin Guilt Copy Share Image
“I really mean that there was no love in the church. It was a mask for hatred and self-hatred and despair.” — James Baldwin Hatred Copy Share Image
“Thursday’s great event was Aimé Cesaire’s speech in the afternoon, dealing with the relation between colonization and culture.” — James Baldwin Culture Copy Share Image
“The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality—for this touchstone can be only oneself.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“I am not trying to be méchant when I talk about women. I respect women—very much—for their inside life, which is not… — James Baldwin Life Copy Share Image
“If your countrymen think that privacy is a crime, so much the worse for your country.” — James Baldwin Cybersecurity Copy Share Image
“It doesn't do any good to fight with Sonny. Sonny just moves back, inside himself, where he can't be reached.” — James Baldwin Fight Copy Share Image
