black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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 Baldwin

If you cannot love me, I will die. Before you came I wanted to die, I have told you many times. It is cruel to have made me want to live only to make my death more bloody
JAMES BALDWIN

Cruel Death Die Live Love
Those kids aren’t dumb. But the people who run these schools want to make sure they don’t get smart: they are really teaching the kids to be slaves.
JAMES BALDWIN

Children Kid School Slave Smart Teaching
Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.
JAMES BALDWIN

Absolute Inspirational Limitation Success
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
Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
JAMES BALDWIN

Freedom Independence Liberty Patriotism People
I want to be an honest man and a good writer.
JAMES BALDWIN

Goodness Honesty Man One Liner Self Love Writing
Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.
JAMES BALDWIN

Afford Grief Guilt Hurt Luxury One Liner
People can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.
JAMES BALDWIN

Friendship Invent Love Lover Parents People Unhappiness
There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves.
JAMES BALDWIN

Deep Human Nature Life One Liner Truth
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
We all commit our crimes. The thing is to not lie about them.
JAMES BALDWIN

Acceptance Commit Crime Lie
People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.
JAMES BALDWIN

Light People Treat Trust
Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.
JAMES BALDWIN

Happiness Inspirational Joy Life Sad Sorrow Teaching Trust
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
The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.
JAMES BALDWIN

Art Force Reality Represent
All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique.
JAMES BALDWIN

Art Confession Oblique One Liner

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More James Baldwin Quotes