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James A. Baldwin Quotes - Page 6

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If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free.

If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free.

James A. Baldwin
Giving, Justice, Diversity
"Letter from a Region in My Mind". www.newyorker.com. November 17, 1962.

One can only face in others what one can face in oneself.

James A. Baldwin
Relationship, Faces, Oneself

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking.

James A. Baldwin
Men, Thinking, Order
"Clemenceau, The Events of His Life as Told by Himself to His Former Secretary, Jean Martet". Book translated by Milton Waldman. Chapter 12: "Conversation with Jean Martet", 1930.

If the word 'integration' means anything, this is what it means that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.

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

We can make America what America must become.

James A. Baldwin
America
"How James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time still lights the way towards equality" by Steven W Thrasher, www.theguardian.com. April 4, 2017.

There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.

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

Everything in life depends on how that life accepts its limits.

James A. Baldwin
Life, Acceptance, Limits

The occurrence of an event is not the same thing as knowing what it is that one has lived through.

James A. Baldwin
Knowing, Events

If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.

James A. Baldwin
Religious, Use, Validity
New Yorker 17 Nov. 1962 "Down at the Cross"

People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.

James A. Baldwin
People, Giving, Parent

The white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross.

James A. Baldwin
Men, White Man, Justice

It is a very rare man who does not victimize the helpless.

James A. Baldwin
Men, Doe, Prejudice

Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it. Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it.

James A. Baldwin
Believe, Desire Love, Wish

And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time, and furthermore, to win.

James A. Baldwin
Winning, Space, Choices

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

James A. Baldwin
People, Culture, Literature

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.

James A. Baldwin
Country, Believe, Hero

A writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees.

James A. Baldwin
Risk

The writer's only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art

James A. Baldwin
Art, Real, Order

Great art can only be created out of love.

James A. Baldwin
Art, Artist, Great Art

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

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

A society must assume that it is stable, but the artist must know, and he must let us know, that there is nothing stable under heaven.

James A. Baldwin
Artist, Heaven, Assuming

When Americans look out on the world, they see nothing but dark and menacing strangers who appear to have no sense of rhythm at all, nor any respect or affection for white people; and white Americans really do not know what to make of all this, except to increase the defense budget.

James A. Baldwin
Dark, White, People

Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.

James A. Baldwin
Suicidal, Self, Hatred

To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.

James A. Baldwin
Literature, Danger, Committed
"A Letter to My Nephew" by James Baldwin, progressive.org. January 1, 1962.

A real writer is always shifting and changing and searching.

James A. Baldwin
Real, Shifting

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