Ralph Ellison on awake
Ralph Ellison78 quotes“I remember that I’m invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.”
More from Ralph Ellison
It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn’t that what we’re all clamoring for these days?-is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled ‘file and forget.’
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison 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.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison Having tried to give pattern to the chaos which lives within the pattern of your certainties, I must come out, I must emerge.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison You start Saul, and end up Paul,’ my grandfather had often said. ‘When you’re a youngun, you Saul, but let life whup your head a bit and you starts to trying to be Paul – though you still Sauls around on the side.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison My hole is warm and full of light.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison America is woven of many strands. I would recognize them and let it so remain.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison To hell with being ashamed of what you liked.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison The truth is the light and the light is the truth.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself.
Ralph EllisonRalph Ellison
Original quotes
From our community writers
Caught inside my mind trapped between its horrid lines losing precious time.
Carmen AmadosCarmen Amados Some women will have you look at life differently.
Eleni SophiaEleni Sophia The biggest reward often require the largest risks.
Nicole BrownNicole Brown Being with you is familiar, like playing guitar after some time; the theory is there but my fingers have forgotten the chords.
AstaAsta Late-night conservations, Breathtaking memories, and an endless sky full of unseen dazzling stars. That’s how I want to remember us.
AurthurAurthur Nothing is more terrifying than falling in love.
Helena DegnHelena Degn People who cannot see through souls will keep searching for beauty in faces and will never find it.
Shilpa GoelShilpa Goel There is someone out there waiting to love you in all the ways you deserve.
Ashley PrzywolskiAshley Przywolski
Meet the writers
More on awake
Breakups have a way of shaking us awake and helping us see what we really want vs. what we are willing to settle for.
Mandy HaleMandy Hale Sometimes it takes a heartbreak to shake us awake & help us see we are worth so much more than we’re settling for.
Mandy HaleMandy Hale To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.
Pema ChodronPema Chodron We each need to make our lion’s roar – to persevere with unshakable courage when faced with all manner of doubts and sorrows and fears – to declare our right to awaken.
Jack KornfieldJack Kornfield Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.
Pema ChodronPema Chodron Use whatever has come to awaken patience, understanding, and love.
Jack KornfieldJack Kornfield I work out with my trainer or do an hour of pilates at 6 or 7AM. I’m done by the time my household is awake.
David BeckhamDavid Beckham Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.
Jon Kabat-ZinnJon Kabat-Zinn
