To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.
JAMES BALDWINOur crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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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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If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.
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Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
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Any 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.
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I often wonder what I’d do if there weren’t any books in the world.
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The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.
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The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.
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People can cry much easier than they can change.
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All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique.
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Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it. Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it.
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Love was a country he knew nothing about.
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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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People can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.
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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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Our crown has already been bought and paid for. All we have to do is wear it.
JAMES BALDWIN