Country Quotes by James A. Baldwin

8 Country quotes by James A. Baldwin

All Country quotes James A. Baldwin’s page

James A. Baldwin delivers eight concise reflections that probe the intersection of personal identity and the larger national narrative, offering a measured, literary lens.

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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

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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

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Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person - ask the wretched how they fare in the halls…

James A. Baldwin

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If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the…

James A. Baldwin

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I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to…

James A. Baldwin

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Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began.…

James A. Baldwin

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It is astonishing that in a country so devoted to the individual, so many people should be afraid to speak.

James A. Baldwin

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Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in…

James A. Baldwin

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More by James A. Baldwin

One cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own.

James A. Baldwin

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All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it.

James A. Baldwin

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I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

James A. Baldwin

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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

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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

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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

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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

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The American ideal is, after all, that everyone should be as much alike as possible.

James A. Baldwin

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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

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I think Americans are terrified of feeling anything. I never met a people more infantile in my life.

James A. Baldwin

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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