Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
JAMES BALDWINLiterature is indispensable to the world.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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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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The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.
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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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Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.
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The world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.
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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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Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.
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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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You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.
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I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.
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Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.
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You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back.
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Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark.
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Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.
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You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason.
JAMES BALDWIN