James Baldwin Quotes

• If the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it.

  James Baldwin

  Tags in Words

• 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.

  James Baldwin

• If you’re afraid to die, you will not be able to live.

  James Baldwin

• Rage cannot be hidden, it can only be dissembled. This dissembling deludes the thoughtless, and strengthens rage and adds, to rage, contempt.

  James Baldwin

• No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

  James 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.

  James Baldwin

• The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

  James Baldwin

  Topics in Knowledge

• Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent.

  James Baldwin

• The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

  James Baldwin

• To defend one’s self against fear is simply to ensure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.

  James Baldwin

• 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.

  James Baldwin

• The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.

  James Baldwin

• Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.

  James Baldwin

• Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?

  James Baldwin

• The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

  James Baldwin

• Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

  James Baldwin

• I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

  James Baldwin

• Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

  James Baldwin

  Topics in Children

• No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

  James Baldwin

• It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

  James Baldwin

James Baldwin (106)

Birth:	2nd August, 1924
Death:	1987
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Essayist, Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Screenwriter

About

James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. He was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, activist and social critic. He wrote several books include: Go Tell It on the Mountain(Semi-autobiographical novel), The Amen Corner(play), Notes of a Native Son(essays), Giovanni's Room(novel), Nobody Knows My Name(essays), Another Country(novel), The Fire Next Time(essays), Blues for Mister Charlie(play), Going to Meet the Man(Short stories), Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone(novel), No Name in the Street(essays), If Beale Street Could Talk(novel), The Devil Finds Work(essay), Just Above My Head(novel), Jimmy's Blues(poem), The Evidence of Things Not Seen(essays), The Price of the Ticket(essays), Jimmy's Blues and Other Poems, A Rap on Race(with Margaret Mead), A Dialogue(with Nikki Giovanni), and Little Man Little Man(children's novel). He wrote several films include: Go Tell It on the Mountain(TV film), Where the Heart Is, and I Am Not Your Negro(nominated- Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature).

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Today's Anniversary - 27th December

Births

• 1942 - Thomas Menino
• 1943 - Martha Shelley
• 1965 - Salman Khan
• 1906 - Oscar Levant
• 1976 - Aaron Stanford

Deaths

• 2003 - Alan Bates
• 1938 - Zona Gale
• 1985 - Potter Stewart
• 1994 - Marjorie Joyner