James A. Baldwin Quotes

James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son, explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western society, most notably in regard to the mid-twentieth-century United States. ...more

Birth: August 02, 1924 - Death: November 30, 1987

The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

Topic(s): Inspirational , Action , Justice

If I am not what you say I am, then you are not who you think you are.

Topic(s): Thinking , Ifs

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all of the time.

Topic(s): Country , Literature , Conscious

It is a very rare man who does not victimize the helpless.

Topic(s): Men , Doe , Prejudice

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

Topic(s): Certain , Justice , Enemy

Love is like the lightning, and your maturity is signaled by the extent to which you can accept the dangers and the power and the beauty of love.

Topic(s): Love , Love Is , Accepting

The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land.

Topic(s): Culture , Justice , Land

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

Topic(s): Morality , Power , Subtle

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 breaking of bread.