History is not a procession of illustrious people. It’s about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.
JAMES BALDWINHistory is not a procession of illustrious people. It’s about what happens to a people. Millions of anonymous people is what history is about.
JAMES BALDWINAny real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.
JAMES BALDWINThere are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.
JAMES BALDWINThe most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.
JAMES BALDWINDo I really want to be integrated into a burning house?
JAMES BALDWINIt was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.
JAMES BALDWINLiterature is indispensable to the world.
JAMES BALDWINThose who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.
JAMES BALDWINGenerations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
JAMES BALDWINThe world is before you, and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.
JAMES BALDWINI want to be an honest man and a good writer.
JAMES BALDWINThose 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 BALDWINWe all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
JAMES BALDWINEducation is indoctrination if you’re white – subjugation if you’re black.
JAMES BALDWINThere is a fearful splendor in absolute desolation.
JAMES BALDWINYou think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.
JAMES BALDWIN