James A. Baldwin Quotes

Quotes about:

• I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Believe, I Can

  "A Mother’s Story: It Is Not What We Say to Black Boys and Men, It Is What We Do to Them" by Laura W. Murphy, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 30, 2012.

  154 Copy quote

• Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Change, Leadership

  "As Much Truth As One Can Bear". The New York Times Book Review, January 14, 1962.

  248 Copy quote

• I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

  James A. Baldwin

  Forgiveness, Encouragement, Pain

  "Me and My House". Harper's Magazine, November 1955.

  131 Copy quote

• One cannot deny the humanity of another without diminishing one's own.

  James A. Baldwin

  Humanity, Deny

  40 Copy quote

• You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.

  James A. Baldwin

  Ideas, World, Force

  101 Copy quote

• For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

  James A. Baldwin

  Change, Children, Acceptance

  "The Fire Next Time". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1963.

  94 Copy quote

• The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

  James A. Baldwin

  Children, Challenges, Live In The Moment

  "James Baldwin: My Uncle and His Love Life" by T. Better Baldwin, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 30, 2014.

  17 Copy quote

• Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person - ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Ignorance, Men

  "No Name in the Street". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1972.

  171 Copy quote

• The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it.

  James A. Baldwin

  Fit

  "Another Country" by Claudia Roth Pierpont, www.newyorker.com. February 9, 2009.

  112 Copy quote

• We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.

  James A. Baldwin

  World, Charity, Philanthropy

  52 Copy quote

• People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.

  James A. Baldwin

  Eye, Reality, People

  "Stranger in the Village". Essay by James A. Baldwin, first published in Harper's Magazine (1953), republished in James A. Baldwin "Notes of a Native Son" (1955), and later quoted in "Black Body: Rereading James Baldwin's 'Stranger in the Village'" by Teju Cole, www.newyorker.com. August 19, 2014.

  66 Copy quote

• Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply.

  James A. Baldwin

  Motivational, Freedom, Individual Effort

  "The Crusade of Indignation" by James A. Baldwin in "The Nation" (New York, July 7, 1956); later quoted in James A. Baldwin "The Price of the Ticket", 1985.

  22 Copy quote

• To be black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.

  James A. Baldwin

  America, Black, Rage

  "My Son Called Me The Hulk, And I’m OK With It" by Danielle Slaughter, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 28, 2016.

  89 Copy quote

• Recognizing a problem doesn't always bring a solution, but until we recognize that problem, there can be no solution.

  James A. Baldwin

  Forgiveness, Problem, Recognizing

  5 Copy quote

• A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless.

  James A. Baldwin

  Civilization, People, Wicked

  "Letter from a Region in My Mind" by James Baldwin, www.newyorker.com. November 17, 1962.

  72 Copy quote

• The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.

  James A. Baldwin

  Lying, Expectations, World

  "The shot that echoes still" by James Baldwin, www.esquire.com. January 12, 2018.

  20 Copy quote

• The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

  James A. Baldwin

  Knowledge, Science, Government

  "Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1961.

  11 Copy quote

• If one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected - those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! - and listens to their testimony.

  James A. Baldwin

  Country, Law, Class

  "No Name in the Street". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1972.

  144 Copy quote

• You've got to tell the world how to treat you. If the world tells you how you are going to be treated, you are in trouble.

  James A. Baldwin

  World, Trouble, Treats

  33 Copy quote

• Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.

  James A. Baldwin

  Joy, Sorrow, Needs

  98 Copy quote

• You cannot fix what you will not face.

  James A. Baldwin

  Self Improvement, Faces

  32 Copy quote

• It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror.

  James A. Baldwin

  Mirrors, Order, People

  70 Copy quote

• It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

  James A. Baldwin

  Ignorance, Justice, Enemy

  "No Name in the Street". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1972.

  64 Copy quote

• The purpose of education...is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.

  James A. Baldwin

  Education, Decision, Looks

  58 Copy quote

• 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.

  James A. Baldwin

  Inspirational, Country, Memorial Day

  "Notes of a Native Son". Book by James A. Baldwin, archive.nytimes.com. 1955.

  69 Copy quote

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