All James A. Baldwin Quotes
- When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living. Begins
- People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. History
- Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even… Daily
- The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. Any
- Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent. Any
- Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black. Black
- Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. Affliction
- People can cry much easier than they can change. Change
- Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state… Born
- The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever. Black
- I want to be an honest man and a good writer. Good
- No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it. Culture
- To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that… African American
- Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it. Contains
- Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. Dangerous
- The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others. Asks
- The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory. Ambition
- The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in. Came
- The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did… All
- There is a 'sanctity' involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it. Baby
- To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. Act
- You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long… Begin
- When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance.… Act
- Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will… Day
- It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who… Alive