Way Quotes by James A. Baldwin

9 Way quotes by James A. Baldwin

Baldwin’s thoughts on a way delve into identity, society, and personal agency, each line resonating with depth. These nine excerpts give a succinct but powerful taste of his eloquent, thought‑provoking style.

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A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence.

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…

James A. Baldwin

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After my best friend jumped off the bridge, I knew that I was next. So-Paris. With forty dollars and a one-way ticket.

James A. Baldwin

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To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity.

James A. Baldwin

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There is no way of conveying to the corpse the reasons you have made him one--you have the corpse, and you are,…

James A. Baldwin

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European society has always been divided into classes in a way that American society never has been. A European writer considers himself…

James A. Baldwin

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Women manage, quite brilliantly, on the whole, and to stunning and unforeseeable effect, to survive and surmount being defined by others. They…

James A. Baldwin

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Such figures as Boy George do not disturb me nearly so much as do those relentlessly hetero (sexual?) keepers of the keys…

James A. Baldwin

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The world's definitions are one thing and the life one actually lives is quite another. One cannot allow oneself, nor one's family,…

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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