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James A. Baldwin Quotes about Children

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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.

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.

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.

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.

The civilized have created the wretched, quite coldly and deliberately, and do not intend to change the status quo; are responsible for their slaughter and enslavement; rain down bombs on defenseless children whenever and wherever they decide that their "vital interests" are menaced, and think nothing of torturing a man to death: these people are not to be taken seriously when they speak of the "sanctity" of human life, or the "conscience" of the civilized world.

James A. Baldwin
Children, Rain, Taken
"The Devil Finds Work". Book by James A. Baldwin, 1976, reprinted in James A. Baldwin "The Price of the Ticket", 1985.

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

James A. Baldwin
Education, Teacher, Children
"If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?" by James A. Baldwin, archive.nytimes.com. July 29, 1979.

For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for whatthey become.

James A. Baldwin
Children, Pay, Profit

There are, forever, swamps to be drained, cities to be created, mines to be exploited, children to be fed ... But the conquest of the physical world is not man’s only duty. He is also enjoined to conquer the great wilderness of himself. The precise role of the artist, then, is to illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through vast forests, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.

James A. Baldwin
Children, Men, Artist

The world's definitions are one thing and the life one actually lives is quite another. One cannot allow oneself, nor one's family, friends, or lovers - to say nothing of one's children - to live according to the world's definitions: one must find a way, perpetually, to be stronger and better than that.

James A. Baldwin
Children, Stronger, World

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