James Baldwin Quotes

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.

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.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity.

Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

The world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.

People can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford.