“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
History
“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
“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“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
History“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
Society“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
Power“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
Fear“The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.”
Power“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.”
History“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“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“The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
Knowledge“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“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.”
Future“No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.”
Time“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
Good“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
Time“The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.”
Future“People can cry much easier than they can change.”
Change“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.”
Money“Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
Truth