"What passes for identity in America is a……" — James A. Baldwin
"What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one's heroic ancestors. It's astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn't stay there any longer and had to go somewhere else to make it. That's all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That's how the country was settled."
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James A. Baldwin
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339 Quotes by James A. Baldwin
James A. Baldwin has 339 quotes on this site.
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Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is…
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Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
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The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
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People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay…
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I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is…
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People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on…
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Be careful what you set your heart upon - for it will surely be yours.
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Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.
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It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
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I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the…
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Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
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