Quotessence
Home / Authors / Malcolm X
Malcolm X

Malcolm X Quotes

Human rights activist

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenWhitePeopleBlackIfsAmericaWhite ManThinkingCountryKnowsProblemBlack PeopleHumansShouldWantBelieveTodayIntegrationMeanWay

Famous Malcolm X Quotes

“By looking upon themselves as human beings, their whiteness to them isn't the yardstick of perfection or honor or anything else. And, therefore, this creates within them an attitude that is different from the attitude of the white that you meet here in America, and it was in Mecca that I realized that white is actually an attitude more so than it's a color.”

HumansDifferentAmericaHuman BeingsWhiteAttitudeColorHonorPerfectionI RealizedWhitenessMeccaYardsticks
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, even eaten with people who in America would have been considered 'white,' but the 'white' attitude had been removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.”

PeopleWorldNeedsMindHas BeensProblemAmericaWhiteRaceAttitudeMetsIslamEraseMeccaMuslim WorldReligion Of Islam
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“America is subsidizing what is left of the prestige and strength of the once mighty Britain. The sun has set forever on that monocled, pith-helmeted resident colonialist, sipping tea with his delicate lady in the non-white colonies being systematically robbed of every valuable resource. Britain's superfluous royalty and nobility now exist by charging tourists to inspect the once baronial castles, and by selling memoirs, perfumes, autographs, titles, and even themselves.”

AmericaLeftWhiteSunForeverResourcesValuableMemoirSellingTeaTitlesBritainDelicatePerfumeNobilityCastlesRoyaltyTouristsColonyAutographsPrestigeSuperfluousResidentsChargingSipping
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“And when I speak, I don't speak as a Democrat or a Republican, nor an American. I speak as a victim of America's so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy - all we've seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the fruits of Americanism. We see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We don't see any American dream. We've experienced only the American nightmare.”

LooksHas BeensDreamEyeTodayAmericaSpeakDemocracyRepublicanVictimDemocratFruitEnjoyedHypocrisyNightmareAmerican DreamThrough The EyesAmericanism
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“You can’t hate the roots of the tree without ending up hating the tree. You can’t hate your origin without ending up hating yourself. You can’t hate the land, your motherland, the place that you come from, and we can’t hate Africa without ending up hating ourselves. The Black man in the Western Hemisphere—North America, Central America, South America, and in the Caribbean—is the best example of how one can be made, skillfully, to hate himself that you can find anywhere on this earth.”

MenMadeEarthAmericaHateBlackTreeLandExampleRootsSouthWesternNorth AmericaCaribbeanHemisphereSouth AmericaCentral AmericaMotherlandHating Yourself
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“I believe that it would be almost impossible to find anywhere in America a black man who has lived further down in the mud of human society than I have; or a black man who has been any more ignorant than I have; or a black man who has suffered more anguish during his life than I have. But it is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come; it is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come.”

MenBelieveHumansHas BeensWould BeAmericaJoyI BelieveBlackFreedomDarknessImpossibleSlaveryPrisonAppreciationIgnorantAnguishMudSweetestHuman Society
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being. Our common goal is to obtain the human rights America has been denying us. We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans.”

FirstsHumansHas BeensAmericaGivenGoalJusticeHuman BeingsCommonMillionsRightsCitizensDiversitySocial JusticeHuman RightsCivil RightsAfrosCommon GoalRights In America
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“The greatest miracle Christianity has achieved in America is that the Black man in white Christian hands has not grown violent. It is a miracle that twenty-two million Black people have not risen up against their oppressors in which they would have been justified by all moral criteria and even by the democratic traditions.”

PeopleMenHas BeensTwoHandsChristianAmericaBlackJusticeWhiteMoralChristianityMillionsDiversityTraditionMiracleTwentiesSocial JusticeDemocraticViolentBlack PeopleJustifiedCriteriaRisenOppressorsTwenty Two
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“The black man in North America was economically sick and that was evident in one simple fact: as a consumer, he got less than his share, and as a producer gave least. The black American today shows us the perfect parasite image - the black tick under the delusion that he is progressing because he rides on the udder of the fat, three-stomached cow that is white America.”

PeopleMenFactsShowsTodayAmericaThreeBlackSimpleWhitePerfectProgressShareSickFatsProducersConsumersDelusionCowsEvidentNorth AmericaTickParasites
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“The black man in North America was sickest of all politically. He let the white man divide him into such foolishness as considering himself a black 'Democrat,' a black 'Republican,' a black 'Conservative,' or a black 'Liberal' ...when a ten-million black vote bloc could be the deciding balance of power in American politics, because the white man's vote is almost always evenly divided.”

MenAmericaPoliticsBlackWhiteMillionsBalanceRepublicanTenVoteDemocratConservativeDividedDividesConsideringFoolishnessWhite ManAmerican PoliticsNorth AmericaBalance Of Power
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“The government has departments to deal with the special interest groups that make themselves heard and felt. A Department of Agriculture cares for the farmers' needs. There is a Department of Health, Education and Welfare. There is a Department of the Interior - in which the Indians are included. Is the farmer, the doctor, the Indian, the greatest problem in America today? No - it is the black man! There ought to be a Pentagon-sized Washington department dealing with every segment of the black man's problems.”

MenNeedsProblemGovernmentCareTodayAmericaPoliticsFeltBlackInterestDealsHeardGroupsSpecialOughtDoctorsIndianWelfareDepartmentFarmersAgricultureInteriorsSpecial InterestsPentagonAmerica TodayInterest GroupsHealth EducationSpecial Interest Groups
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.”

PeopleIfsMenChildrenCountryAmericaBlackTeachViolenceBabyDefenseViolentBlack PeopleBlack WomenGun ViolenceBlack AmericaViolent ManDefending America
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“I know that societies often have killed people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America, then, all credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHas BeensI CanHelpingWisdomBodyLightAmericaDiesMistakeMinesCancerCreditDuesMeaningfulIslamicRacistExposed
Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Create image

“The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the Black Revolution is worldwide in scope and in nature. The Black Revolution is sweeping Asia, is sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in Latin America. The Cuban Revolution - that's a revolution. They overturned the system. Revolution is in Asia, revolution is in Africa, and the white man is screaming because he sees revolution in Latin America. How do you think he'll react to you when you learn what a real revolution is?”

ThinkingKnowsMenRealAmericaBlackWhiteRevolutionLatinWhite ManAsiaScopeLatin AmericaSweepingCubanCuban Revolution
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.”

WorldBelieveAmericaSpiritBlackWhiteColorBlueUnityRitualBrotherhoodPilgrimParticipatingMeccaBlue EyedHajj
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“If all the white people who claim they don't hate us would ever get together and do something to the whites who claim they hate us, we'd see some action. Talk is cheap, if white people didn't want to have a South African situation ... there'd be none. If white people in America didn't want segregation, there'd be none ... it is the man who allows him to lynch who is never seen.”

PeopleIfsMenWantActionTogetherAmericaHateWhiteSituationHe ManClaimsSouthSouth AfricaSegregationGet TogetherDon't HateTalk Is Cheap
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“One thing that the white man can never give the black man is self respect. The black man in the ghettos, have to start self correcting his own material moral, and spiritual defects, and evil. The black man need to start his own program to get rid of drunkenness, drug addiction and prostitution. The black man in America has to lift up his own sense of values.”

MenNeedsGivingSelfAmericaSpiritualValuesEvilBlackWhiteMoralOne ThingMaterialsDrugRespectProgramAddictionLiftsSelf RespectWhite ManDefectsMuslimProstitutionGhettoDrunkennessDrug AddictionDrug AddictCorrecting
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“[Black nationalism] is not designed to make the black man reevaluate the white man--you know him already--but to make the black man re-evaluate himself. Don't change the white man's mind; you can't change his mind. And that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of America--America's conscience is bankrupt.”

KnowsMenMindWholeAmericaBlackWhiteMoralConscienceNationalismWhite ManEvaluateCan't ChangeIntriguingDon't ChangeBlack NationalismMoral Conscience
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“They attack the victim, and then the criminal who attacked the victim accuses the victim of attacking him. This is American justice. This is American democracy and those of you who are familiar with it know that in America democracy is hypocrisy. Now, if I’m wrong, put me in jail; but if you can’t prove that democracy is not hypocrisy, then don’t put your hands on me.”

IfsKnowsHandsAmericaJusticeDemocracyProveVictimCriminalsFamiliarHypocrisyJailAttackingAmerican DemocracyAmerican Justice
Author:Malcolm X
Create image

“I think the black man in America wants to be recognized as a human being; and it's almost impossible for one who has enslaved another to bring himself to accept the person who used to pull his plow, who used to be an animal, subhuman, who used to be considered as such by him-it's almost impossible for that person in his right mind to accept that person as his equal.”

ThinkingMenWantMindHumansPersonsAmericaUsedBlackHuman BeingsAnimalAcceptingImpossibleEqualRacismUsed To Be
Author:Malcolm X
Create image