The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstances, whether created by others or by one's own human failing. Ralph Ellison More Quotes by Ralph Ellison More Quotes From Ralph Ellison It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. Ralph Ellison being-yourself self-esteem expectations And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my first northern winter had set. Ralph Ellison melting ice winter The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go. When understood in their more profound implication, they are a corrective, an attempt to draw a line upon man's own limitless assertion. Ralph Ellison music men art The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it. Ralph Ellison possibility ifs world We look too much to museums. The sun coming up in the morning is enough. Ralph Ellison morning museums looks I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers. Ralph Ellison sleep remember world Every serious novel is, beyond its immediate thematic preoccupations, a discussion of the craft, a conquest of the form, a conflict with its difficulties and a pursuit of its felicities and beauty. Ralph Ellison conflict crafts serious If social protest is antithetical to art, what then shall we make of Goya, Dickens, and Twain? Ralph Ellison goya social art Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn't now, I couldn't give much thought to love; in order to travel far you had to be detached, and I had the long road back to the campus before me. Ralph Ellison order long travel I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Ralph Ellison black-history african-american people And I knew that it was better to live out one's absurdity than to die for that of others. Ralph Ellison absurdity dies I feel the need to reaffirm all of it, the whole unhappy territory and all the things loved and unloveable in it, for it is all part of me. Ralph Ellison territory unhappy needs Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove. Ralph Ellison purple eagles men The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled. Ralph Ellison sirens empty trying Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you? Ralph Ellison frequency speak knows America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's 'winner take nothing' that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many - This in not prophecy, but description. Ralph Ellison fate life country I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me? Ralph Ellison invisibility denial way Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. Ralph Ellison cousin relationship people It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. Ralph Ellison unseen nerves solitude The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically. Ralph Ellison details alive philosophy
