You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason.
JAMES BALDWINYou write in order to change the world, if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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True rebels after all, are as rare as true lovers,and in both cases, to mistake a fever for passion can destroy one’s life.
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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 are people in the world for whom “coming along” is a perpetual process, people who are destined never to arrive.
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Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
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The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.
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The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.
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It is easy to proclaim all souls equal in the sight of God; it is hard to make men equal on earth in the sight of men.
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Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity.
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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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We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
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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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To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.
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People don’t have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love.
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Those kids aren’t dumb. But the people who run these schools want to make sure they don’t get smart: they are really teaching the kids to be slaves.
JAMES BALDWIN