All Ralph Ellison Quotes
- It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. Advantageous
- Many of the rites of passage, those rituals of growing up found in our society, are in the form of such comic, practical joking affairs--which… Affair
- I felt that even when they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the pardon of Jack the Bear, never glancing… Along
- Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides… Art
- I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie… Alienation
- When American life is most American it is apt to be most theatrical. American
- The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Antidote
- The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human… All
- In order to travel far you have to be detached. Detached
- I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. Answer
- the world is just as concrete, ornery, vile, and sublimely wonderful as before, only now I better understand my relation to it and it to… Better
- I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Inspirational
- I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said… Black
- Education is all a matter of building bridges. Academic
- I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. African American
- Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out… African American
- When I discover who I am, I'll be free. African American
- Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Certain
- America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This… America
- Eclecticism is the word. Like a jazz musician who creates his own style out of the styles around him, I play by ear. Creates
- Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by. Difficult
- The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead. Ahead
- There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here… All
- We look too much to museums. The sun coming up in the morning is enough. Coming
- And I knew that it was better to live out one's absurdity than to die for that of others. Absurdity