---
title: "2 Assertion Quotes By Ralph Ellison"
description: "2 Assertion quotes by Ralph Ellison. Plus more from Ralph Ellison and more Assertion sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac6/ralph-ellison-2676_ambiguity_the-blues-is-an-art-of-ambiguity-an-asse_1041294.png"
---

> [The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human failing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/the-blues-is-an-art-of-ambiguity-an-assertion-of-the-irrepressibly/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ac6/ralph-ellison-2676_ambiguity_the-blues-is-an-art-of-ambiguity-an-asse_1041294.png)

> [The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/the-blues-is-an-art-of-ambiguity-an-assertion-of-the-irrepressibly-2/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8a2/ralph-ellison-2676_ambiguity_the-blues-is-an-art-of-ambiguity-an-asse_1198606.png)

## Other authors on Assertion

## More by Ralph Ellison

> [“Civil wars...are the best wars for the writer...because they have a way of continuing long afterwl wars between nations are resolved; because, with the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/civil-wars-are-the-best-wars-for-the-writer-because-they-have-a-way/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“But what a feeling can come over a man just from seeing the things he believes in and hopes for symbolized in the concrete…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/but-what-a-feeling-can-come-over-a-man-just-from-seeing-the-things-he/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [I suspect that all the agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance-but it must be acceptance on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/i-suspect-that-all-the-agony-that-goes-into-writing-is-borne/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good—only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/everywhere-i-ve-turned-somebody-has-wanted-to-sacrifice-me-for-my-own/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [Power, for the writer…lies in his ability to reveal if only a little bit more about the complexity of humanity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/power-for-the-writer-lies-in-his-ability-to-reveal-if-only-a-little/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [...and yet I am what they think I am.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-yet-i-am-what-they-think-i-am/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-while-the-ice-was-melting-to-form-a-flood-in-which-i-threatened/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“Do they come to bury the others or to be entombed to give life or to receive it?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/do-they-come-to-bury-the-others-or-to-be-entombed-to-give-life-or-to/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/they-could-laugh-at-him-but-they-couldn-t-ignore-him/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music an obscene looting of a cultural expression.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/commercial-rock-n-roll-music-is-a-brutalization-of-the-stream-of/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“All dreamers and sleepwalkers must pay the price, and even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/all-dreamers-and-sleepwalkers-must-pay-the-price-and-even-the/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization--pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I've heard)--which might sound like a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/those-two-spots-are-among-the-darkest-of-our-whole-civilization/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [“Above the decorous walking around me, sounds of footsteps leaving the verandas of far-flung buildings and moving toward the walks and over the walks…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/above-the-decorous-walking-around-me-sounds-of-footsteps-leaving-the/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/and-my-problem-was-that-i-always-tried-to-go-in-everyone-s-way-but-my/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

> [I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-ellison/i-am-one-of-the-most-irresponsible-beings-that-ever-lived/)

[Ralph Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-ellison/)

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