All James A. Baldwin Quotes
- One writes out of one thing only-one's own experience, Experience
- It is astonishing that in a country so devoted to the individual, so many people should be afraid to speak. Afraid
- I really do believe in the New Jerusalem. I really do believe that we can all become better than we are. I know we can. But the price… All
- I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The… Anomalies
- I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.… All
- All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not… All
- People who have been wronged will attempt to right the wrong; they would not be people if they didn't. They can rarely afford to be… Afford
- The American idea of racial progress is measured by how fast I become white. American
- Love is like the lightning, and your maturity is signaled by the extent to which you can accept the dangers and the power and the… Accept
- Hatred destroys the person who hates. Destroys
- It is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent or even hostile to the French. Enamoured
- Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty - necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the… Arrogance
- Everything now, we must assume, is in our hands; we have no right to assume otherwise. If we do not falter in our duty now,… Able
- It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian. Age
- The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black. Black
- People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction. Destruction
- Color is not a human or a personal reality it is a political reality. Color
- Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the… Becoming
- The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly. Beautiful
- Each of us, helplessly and forever, contains the other-male in female, female in male, white in black, and black in white. We are part of… Appear
- Life is more important than art; that's what makes art important. Art
- The purpose of education...is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions. Ability
- If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God… Bible
- You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. [and then you discover that others have… Comparison
- It is only because the world looks on his talent with such a frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important. Art