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 BALDWINHatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.
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The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.
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Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
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There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.
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Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
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Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.
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If I am not what you say I am, then you are not who you think you are.
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The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.
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I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.
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Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.
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Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?
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Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
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The world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.
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If you cannot love me, I will die. Before you came I wanted to die, I have told you many times. It is cruel to have made me want to live only to make my death more bloody
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Education is indoctrination if you’re white – subjugation if you’re black.
JAMES BALDWIN