America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain.
RALPH ELLISONLight confirms my reality, gives birth to my form…without light I am not only invisible but formless as well; and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death…the truth is the light and light is the truth.
More Ralph Ellison Quotes
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It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.
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Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
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My hole is warm and full of light.
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In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.
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I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?
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America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description.
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And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own.
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Man’s hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.
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What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?
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Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?
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Words are your business, boy. Not just the word. Words are everything. The key to the rock, the answer to the question.
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Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are.
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The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas.
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I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids – and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
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I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I’ve tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied
RALPH ELLISON