James A. Baldwin Quotes about Passion

All James A. Baldwin Quotes Acceptance Art Belief Challenges Change Children Confession Country Crime Culture Darkness Desire Destiny Diversity Earth Education Effort Empathy Evil Experience Giving Hate Hatred Heart Heaven History Home Humanity Identity Ignorance Imagination Innocence Inspirational Journey Justice Liberty Life Literature Loss Love Lying Memories Music Pain Passion quotes Past Purpose Racism Rage Reality Responsibility Revelations Risk Safety School Society Sorrow Surrender Terror Time Waiting War Water Writing

Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies,

Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death - ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.

James A. Baldwin

Passion, Army, Sacrifice

"Letter from a Region of My Mind". The New Yorker, November 17, 1962. Republished in "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind", 1963.

It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death-- ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.

James A. Baldwin

Passion, Darkness, Sake

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

True rebels after all, are as rare as true lovers,and in both cases, to mistake a fever for passion can destroy one's life

James A. Baldwin

Mistake, Passion, Rebel

Passion is not friendly. It is arrogant, superbly contemptuous of all that is not itself, and, as they very definition of passion implies the impulse to freedom, it has a might intimidiating power. It contains a challenge. It contains an unspeakable hope.

James A. Baldwin

Passion, Challenges, Friendly