James Baldwin Quotes & Quotations

James Baldwin Quotes

» The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state of being alone.

» Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one's beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.

» We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.

» When the book comes out it may hurt you -- but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself.

» Experience is a private, and a very largely speechless affair.

» Experience that destroys innocents also leads one back to it.

» The future is... black.

» An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or when the stranger enters the gates, never, thereafter, to be a stranger. Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes.

» Christianity has operated with an unmitigated arrogance and cruelty -- necessarily, since a religion ordinarily imposes on those who have discovered the true faith the spiritual duty of liberating the infidels.

» The American ideal, after all, is that everyone should be as much alike as possible.

Who Said It?

Who Said: "Be slow of tongue and quick of eye." Click To See

Daily Famous Quote

Who Said: "One eye in the corner is sharper than two about the house." Subscribe

Noyemi Famous Quotes

Famous Quotes & Quotations by Famous and Not-So-Famous People