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James A. Baldwin Quotes

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

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.

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.

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

James A. Baldwin
Humanity, Deny

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

James A. Baldwin
African American, Philanthropy, Made

... every human being is an unprecedented miracle.

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

You cannot fix what you will not face.

James A. Baldwin
Self Improvement, Faces

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

James A. Baldwin
Family, Education, Wisdom
Nobody Knows My Name (1961) "Fifth Avenue, Uptown: a letter from Harlem"

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.

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.

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.

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

It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.

James A. Baldwin
Years, Half, Vomiting

It demands great spiritual resilience not to hate the hater whose foot is on your neck, and an even greater miracle of perception and charity not to teach your child to hate.

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

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James A. Baldwin
Love, Life, Friendship

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