All James A. Baldwin Quotes
- The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains. Artistic
- We do not trust educated people and rarely, alas, produce them, for we do not trust the independence of mind which alone makes a genuine… Alas
- Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal. All
- People are continually pointing out to me the wretchedness of white people in order to console me for the wretchedness of blacks. But an itemized… Account
- If I am not what you say I am, then you are not who you think you are. Funny
- It happened, as many things do, imperceptibly, in many ways at once. I date it - the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of… Began
- A person does not lightly elect to oppose his society. One would much rather be at home among one's compatriots than be mocked and detested… Among
- Years ago, when he was around fourteen, he'd been all hipped on the idea of going to India. He read books about people sitting on… Ago
- You're getting to be a big boy,' I said desperately, 'it's time you started thinking about your future.' 'I'm thinking about my future,' said Sonny,… All
- The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers. Answers
- After departure, only invisible things are left, perhaps the life of the world is held together by invisible chains of memory and loss and love.… Chains
- Secrets hidden at the heart of midnight are simply waiting to be dragged to the light, as, on some unlucky high noon, they always are.… Agile
- Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house? Burning
- And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched… Aware
- I was in his hands, he called me by the thunder at my ear. I was in his hands: I was being changed; all that… All
- Sentimentality, the ostentatious parading of excessive and spurious emotion, is the mark of dishonesty...the wet eyes of the sentimentalist betray his aversion to experience, his… Always Therefore
- White people...have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this -- which… Accept
- The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know… All
- The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through. Most people had not lived… Any
- The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through. Event
- But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as… Able
- America sometimes resembles, at least from the point of view of a black man, an exceedingly monotonous minstrel show; the same dances, same music, same… America
- Youth must be the worst time in anybody's life. Everything's happening for the first time, which means that sorrow, then, lasts forever. Later, you can… Beautiful
- Whatever you describe to another person is also a revelation of who you are and who you think you are. You can not describe anything… Another Person
- It will be hard James but you come from sturdy peasant stock men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads and in the… Achieved