And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
JAMES A. BALDWINA child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.
More James A. Baldwin Quotes
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The determination to outwit one’s situation means that one has no models, only object lessons.
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At bottom, to be colored means that one has been caught in some utterly unbelievable cosmic joke, a joke so hideous and in such bad taste that it defeats all categories and definitions.
JAMES A. BALDWIN -
If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, fire next time.
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There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.
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I think Americans are terrified of feeling anything. I never met a people more infantile in my life.
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If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
JAMES A. BALDWIN -
It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror.
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There is a ‘sanctity’ involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.
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The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
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There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.
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It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.
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Be careful what you set your heart upon – for it will surely be yours.
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There is no way of conveying to the corpse the reasons you have made him one–you have the corpse, and you are, thereafter, at themercy of a fact which missed the truth, which means that the corpse has you.
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At four o’clock in the morning, when everyone is drunk enough, then extraordinary things can happen.
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Life is more important than art; that’s what makes art important.
JAMES A. BALDWIN







