Rage can only with difficulty, and never entirely, be brought under the domination of the intelligence, and therefore is not susceptible to any arguments whatsoever.
JAMES A. BALDWINThe wretched of the earth do not decide to become extinct, they resolve, on the contrary, to multiply: life is their weapon against life, life is all that they have.
More James A. Baldwin Quotes
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You write in order to change the world.
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The writer’s greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.
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A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.
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I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.
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It is impossible to pretend that you are not heir to, and therefore, however inadequately or unwillingly, responsible to, and for, the time and place that give you life — without becoming, at very best, a dangerously disoriented human being.
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A devotion to humanity is… too easily equated with a devotion to a Cause, and Causes, as we know, are notoriously bloodthirsty.
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… every human being is an unprecedented miracle.
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You have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.
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The real victim of bigotry is the white man who hides his weakness under his myth of superiority.
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The writer’s only real task: to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art
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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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Be careful what you set your heart upon – for it will surely be yours.
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Remember, to hate, to be violent, is demeaning. It means you’re afraid of the other side of the coin — to love and be loved.
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You have to decide who you are and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.
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The male cannot bear very much humiliation; and he really cannot bear it, it obliterates him.
JAMES A. BALDWIN