There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.
JAMES BALDWINTo 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.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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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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I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
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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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People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
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No man is a devil in his own mind.
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If a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe.
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Literature is indispensable to the world.
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Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
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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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Youth must be the worst time in anybody’s life.
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We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
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Education is indoctrination if you’re white – subjugation if you’re black.
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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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If you’re treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person.
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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.
JAMES BALDWIN






