“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
Fear
“There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment the time is always now.”
FutureAll Quotes by James A. Baldwin
“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.”
Love“Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.”
Men“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
Time“People can cry much easier than they can change.”
Change“If the relationship of father to son could really be reduced to biology, the whole earth would blaze with the glory of fathers and sons.”
Relationship“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
Power“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
History“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
History“Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings.”
Hope“Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black.”
Education“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
Love“The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.”
Future“Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
Truth“The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
Knowledge“To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.”
Respect“I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
Positive“The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide.”
Failure“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.”
History“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
Love