American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
JAMES BALDWINIf a society permits one portion of its citizenry to be menaced or destroyed, then, very soon, no one in that society is safe.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
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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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It’s a miracle to realize that somebody loves you.
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The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way a person looks at reality, then you can change it.
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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 are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
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Perhaps he is a fool or a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.
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Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.
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Artists are here to disturb the peace.
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It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
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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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It is astonishing the lengths to which a person, or a people, will go in order to avoid a truthful mirror.
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Whoever debases others is debasing himself.
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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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There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.
JAMES BALDWIN