Quotessence
Home / Authors / James A. Baldwin
James A. Baldwin

James A. Baldwin Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleKnowsWorldIfsMenThinkingWayLiteratureJusticeWhite

Famous James A. Baldwin Quotes

“Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. 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.”

HumansWholeFactsSeemsOrderPassionNationsRaceOur LivesTroubleSacrificeBloodOughtCrossesRootsArmyDenyFlagsRejoiceTabooConfrontingMosquesTotemsConundrumsSteeplesBlood Sacrifice
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

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

InspirationalActionHopeChangeLeadershipJusticeBusinessLeaderChangedSmartAdversityAfrican AmericanNovelistsLife ChangingWrestlingThings ChangeChanging Your LifeMaking ChangesBlack HistoryPlaywrightThings DoneTaking ActionLoving LifeBeing A LeaderEssayistsGetting Things DoneBlack History Month InspirationalManaging ChangeAcceptance And ChangeLeadership And ChangeAction Not Words
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“We should certainly know by now that it is one thing to overthrow a dictator or repel an invader and quite another thing really to achieve a revolution. Time and time and time again, the people discover that they have merely betrayed themselves into the hands of yet another Pharaoh, who, since he was necessary to put the broken country together, will not let them go.”

PeopleKnowsShouldCountryHandsTogetherOne ThingAchieveBrokenRevolutionDictatorBetrayedInvadersPharaohs
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“The poet or the revolutionary is there to articulate the necessity, but until the people themselves apprehend it, nothing can happen ... Perhaps it can't be done without the poet, but it certainly can't be done without the people. The poet and the people get on generally very badly, and yet they need each other. The poet knows it sooner than the people do. The people usually know it after the poet is dead; but that's all right. The point is to get your work done, and your work is to change the world.”

PeopleKnowsWorldNeedsDoneHappensPoetRevolutionaryChanging The WorldWork Done
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“In overlooking, denying, evading this complexity--which is nothing more than the disquieting complexity of ourselves--we are diminished and we perish; only within this web of ambiguity, paradox, this hunger, danger, darkness, can we find at once ourselves and the power that will free us from ourselves. It is this power of revelation that is the business of the novelist, this journey toward a more vast reality which must take precedence over other claims.”

RealityDarknessJourneyDangerClaimsHungerNovelistsComplexityRevelationsParadoxAmbiguityPrecedenceOverlooking
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to him from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible. And it's true of everybody. Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.”

KnowsMatterMomentsHappensArtistNextDarkBearsCitizensWalkingIllusionNo Matter WhatSafetyNobody KnowsWhistlingWalking In The Dark
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image