Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
JAMES BALDWINPeople 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.
More James Baldwin Quotes
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No man is a devil in his own mind.
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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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The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.
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Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.
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People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.
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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.
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Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
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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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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.
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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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Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.
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Literature is indispensable to the world.
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There is a fearful splendor in absolute desolation.
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The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.
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The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.
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Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.
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The impossible is the least that one can demand.
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Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore.
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Love brought you here. If you trusted love this far, don’t panic now.
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I want to be an honest man and a good writer.
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Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark.
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Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.
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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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Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.
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For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.
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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