The world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
JAMES BALDWINPrecisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
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There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.
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I want to be an honest man and a good writer.
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For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.
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The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change it.
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Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
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For nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.
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People can cry much easier than they can change.
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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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Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore.
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To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.
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The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.
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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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There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.
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I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also so much more than that. So are we all.
JAMES BALDWIN