“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
“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
Society“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
Love“The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.”
Experience“The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.”
Future“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“The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.”
Power“I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
Positive“No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.”
Time“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“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“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“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“Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.”
Truth“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
Power“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“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
Fear“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.”
History“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.”
History