“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
Good
“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.”
EducationAll Quotes by James A. Baldwin
“I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
Positive“People can cry much easier than they can change.”
Change“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 am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.”
History“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“The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
Knowledge“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
History“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“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
Power“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“The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.”
Power“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“Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black.”
Education“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
Society“The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.”
Power“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
Love“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
History“The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.”
Experience“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
Fear