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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.

James Baldwin

There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.
JAMES BALDWIN

Pain People Suffering
We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
JAMES BALDWIN

Acceptance Commit Crime Lie
It 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 BALDWIN

Alive Connect People Teaching
The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
JAMES BALDWIN

Cease Each Other Hold Light Moments Sea
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.
JAMES BALDWIN

Earth Simplicity Sun Sunrise Sunset Time Tragic Turn
It is easy to proclaim all souls equal in the sight of God; it is hard to make men equal on earth in the sight of men.
JAMES BALDWIN

Claim Earth Equality God Men Sight Soul
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 BALDWIN

Happen History Million Past People
You don’t have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back.
JAMES BALDWIN

Home Leave Pain Suffering
The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.
JAMES BALDWIN

Acceptance Black Black Lives Matter Power Refuse White World
Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
JAMES BALDWIN

Challenge Change Face Inspirational Life Success
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

Black Black Lives Matter Born Emotional Face Reason Sad
American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
JAMES BALDWIN

Beautiful History Terrible
There are people in the world for whom “coming along” is a perpetual process, people who are destined never to arrive.
JAMES BALDWIN

Arrive People Perpetual World
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.
JAMES BALDWIN

Deal Fear Hate Imagination Pain People Reason
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

Breakup World Change Identity Real Safety
Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
JAMES BALDWIN

Afford Grief Guilt Hurt Luxury One Liner

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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