Real Quotes by James A. Baldwin

9 Real quotes by James A. Baldwin

James A. Baldwin’s eight reflections on authenticity cut to the core of human experience. They provide a succinct, powerful glimpse into his thoughtful, often incisive perspective.

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The interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world.

James A. Baldwin

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The real victim of bigotry is the white man who hides his weakness under his myth of superiority.

James A. Baldwin

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A real writer is always shifting and changing and searching.

James A. Baldwin

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Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one…

James A. Baldwin

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There exists among the intolerable degraded, the perverse and powerful desire to force into the arena of the actual those fantastic crimes…

James A. Baldwin

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We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what…

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…

James A. Baldwin

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Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one…

James A. Baldwin

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Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one…

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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