Totems Quotes by James A. Baldwin

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

— James A. Baldwin

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

— James A. Baldwin

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

— James A. Baldwin

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

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

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

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

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

— James A. Baldwin

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

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

— James A. Baldwin

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

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