People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.
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.
More James Baldwin Quotes
-
-
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
JAMES BALDWIN -
Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
JAMES BALDWIN -
We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
JAMES BALDWIN -
Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.
JAMES BALDWIN -
Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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.
JAMES BALDWIN -
Love brought you here. If you trusted love this far, don’t panic now.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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 -
Nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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.
JAMES BALDWIN -
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.
JAMES BALDWIN -
Do I really want to be integrated into a burning house?
JAMES BALDWIN -
Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.
JAMES BALDWIN