You don't realize that you're intelligent until it gets you into trouble. James A. Baldwin More Quotes by James A. Baldwin More Quotes From James A. Baldwin I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative. James A. Baldwin motivational-sports positive inspirational If one cannot risk oneself, then one is simply incapable of giving. And, after all, one can give freedom only by setting someone free. James A. Baldwin diversity justice giving It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian. James A. Baldwin racism age world Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it. James A. Baldwin suicidal hatred self There are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people. James A. Baldwin hatred heaven people There are too many things we do not wish to know about ourselves. People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?) but they love the idea of being superior. James A. Baldwin wish people ideas It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death-- ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us. James A. Baldwin passion sake darkness Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch. James A. Baldwin affliction crutches liberty If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you're not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real. James A. Baldwin effort real writing To be with God is really to be involved in some enormous, overwhelming desire, and joy, and power which you cannot control, which controls you. James A. Baldwin overwhelming-desire god joy A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled. James A. Baldwin education teacher children Great art can only be created out of love. James A. Baldwin great-art artist art You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself. James A. Baldwin doe long world You cannot fix what you will not face. James A. Baldwin self-improvement faces All art is a kind of confession. James A. Baldwin confession kind art Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal. James A. Baldwin allegiance two way Words like "freedom," "justice," "democracy" are not common concepts; on the contrary, they are rare. People are not born knowing what these are. It takes enormous and, above all, individual effort to arrive at the respect for other people that these words imply. James A. Baldwin individual-effort freedom motivational All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours. James A. Baldwin music air men Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? James A. Baldwin love romantic thinking Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated – in the main, abominably – because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires. James A. Baldwin echoes desire profound
