Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
RALPH ELLISONWho knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?
More Ralph Ellison Quotes
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And I knew that it was better to live out one’s absurdity than to die for that of others.
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All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority.
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My hole is warm and full of light.
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I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.
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The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one’s own human failing.
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Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.
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If social protest is antithetical to art, what then shall we make of Goya, Dickens, and Twain?
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I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.
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God is love, I said, but art’s the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.
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I remember that I’m invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.
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I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?
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To hell with being ashamed of what you liked.
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I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
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The truth is the light and the light is the truth.
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In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.
RALPH ELLISON