“She, who had descended with such joy and pain, had begun her upward climb—upward, with her baby, on the steep, steep side… — James Baldwin Joy and pain Copy Share Image
“quoted Djuna Barnes: “Too great a sense of identity makes a man feel he can do no wrong. And too little does… — James Baldwin Greatness Copy Share Image
“Perhaps he is a fool or a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of otherthings… — James Baldwin Money Copy Share Image
“Men--not just babies like you, but old men, too--they always need a woman to tell them the truth. Les hommes, ils sont… — James Baldwin Feminism Copy Share Image
“there was about his elders an ease in the holy place, and a levity, that made his soul uneasy.” — James Baldwin Mind Copy Share Image
“It’s a long way,” John said slowly, “ain’t it? It’s a hard way. It’s uphill all the way.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“How can one... dream of power in any other terms than in the symbols of power?” — James Baldwin Dream Copy Share Image
“That summer, in any case, all the fears with which I had grown up, and which were now a part of me… — James Baldwin Dreams Copy Share Image
“Out of joy strength came, strength that was fashioned to bear sorrow: sorrow brought forth joy. Forever? This was Ezekiel's wheel, in… — James Baldwin Ezekiel Copy Share Image
“The root of the black man’s hatred is rage, and he does not so much hate white men as simply wants them… — James Baldwin Hatred Copy Share Image
“White people in this country will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“Literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by… — James Baldwin African american Copy Share Image
“On days like this," Cass said, suddenly, "I remember what it was like--I think I remember--to be young, very young." She looked… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In Africa, he said, there was none whatever. Africans do not, in fact, believe that Christianity is any longer real for Europeans,… — James Baldwin Africans Copy Share Image
“I think the country has to find out what it means by freedom. Freedom is a very dangerous thing. Anything else is… — James Baldwin Freedom Copy Share Image
“It is not too much to say that whoever wishes to become a truly moral human being ... must first divorce himself… — James Baldwin Christian church Copy Share Image
“Negroes want to be treated like men: a perfectly straightforward statement, containing only seven words. People who have mastered Kant, Hegel, Shakespeare,… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to… — James Baldwin Death Copy Share Image
“The root of the black man's hatred is rage, and he does not so much had the white man as simply as… — James Baldwin Hatred Copy Share Image
“I suppose this is why I asked her to marry me: to give me something to be moored to. Perhaps this was… — James Baldwin Life Copy Share Image
“Looking at his face, it sometimes came to her that all women had been cursed from the cradle; all, in one fashion… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In the realm of power, Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty—necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who… — James Baldwin Christianity Copy Share Image
“when the black populations of the world have a future, so will the Western nations have a future-and not till then. But… — James Baldwin Future Copy Share Image
“You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other… — James Baldwin Harlem Copy Share Image
“every clanging ambulance bell, in every scar on the faces of the pimps and their whores, in every helpless, newborn baby being… — James Baldwin Death Copy Share Image
“This was the last time I ever saw my mother alive. Just the same, this picture gets all mixed up in my… — James Baldwin Children Copy Share Image
“I have met only a very few people - and most of these were not Americans - who had any real desire… — James Baldwin American dream Copy Share Image
“And this was perhaps the first time in my life that death occurred to me as a reality. I thought of the… — James Baldwin Death Copy Share Image
“If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“One would never defeat one's circumstances by working and saving one's pennies; one would never, by working, acquire that many pennies, and,… — James Baldwin Bank account Copy Share Image
“It is perfectly possible — indeed, it is far from uncommon — to go to bed one night, or wake up one… — James Baldwin Eternal youth Copy Share Image
“No one is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart: for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“It goes without saying, I believe, that if we understood ourselves better, we would damage ourselves less.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him. This is one of… — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.” — James Baldwin Children Copy Share Image
“The rebirth of the soul is perpetual; only rebirth every hour could stay the hand of Satan.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“while the excluded begin to realize, having endured everything, that they can endure everything.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches.” — James Baldwin Copy Share Image
“In those days my mother was given to the exasperating and mysterious habit of having babies.” — James Baldwin Habits Copy Share Image
