“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
Power
“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.”
LoveAll Quotes by James A. Baldwin
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
Good“Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black.”
Education“The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.”
Knowledge“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“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“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
Love“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
History“Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
Truth“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“People can cry much easier than they can change.”
Change“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
Society“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“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.”
Future“I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
Positive“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.”
Education“The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.”
Experience“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
Time