"Whence all this passion towards conformity anyway? Diversity……" — Ralph Ellison
"Whence all this passion towards conformity anyway? Diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you will have no tyrant states. Why, if they follow this conformity business, they'll end up by forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color but the lack of one. Must I strive towards colorlessness? But seriously and without snobbery, think of what the world would lose if that should happen. America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain."
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Ralph Ellison
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83 Quotes by Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison has 83 quotes on this site.
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Our task, then always, is to challenge the apparent forms of reality-that is, the fixed manner and values of the…
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It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.
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Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it." Stephen Covey "It takes a…
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Commercial rock 'n' roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music an obscene looting of…
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The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others…
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I suspect that all the agony that goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer longs for acceptance-but it…
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If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to bind, imprison…
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America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's 'winner take nothing' that…
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And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon…
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I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to…
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We don't all dig Shakespeare uniformly, or even 'Little Red Riding Hood.' The understanding of art depends finally upon one's…
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I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you…
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More All Quotes
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one of 128,558 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally…
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No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our…
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
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Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of…
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We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and…
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
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The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela,…
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As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we…
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
— Aristophanes
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
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