Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by James Baldwin

Quote by James Baldwin

“Privately, we cannot stand our lives and dare not examine them; domestically, we take no responsibility for (and no pride in) what goes on in our country; and internationally, for millions of people, we are an unmitigated disaster.”

Quote by James Baldwin

Book:The Fire Next Time
Create image

Work

The Fire Next Time

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

James Baldwin

Browse famous quotes and profile details for James Baldwin. more

You May Also Like

“There is a persistent theory, held by those who prate most steadily about "the American way of life" that the average American is a rugged individualist to whom the whole conception of "leadership" is something foreign and distasteful—and this theory would certainly seem to be in accord with our national tradition of lawlessness and disrespect for authority. But it is not entirely consistent with the facts. We Americans are inveterate hero worshipers, to a far greater extent than are the British and the French. We like to personalize our loyalties, our causes. In our political or business or labor organizations, we are comforted by the knowledge that at the top is a Big Boss whom we are free to revere or to hate and upon whom we can depend for quick decisions when the going gets tough. The same is true of our Boy Scout troops and our criminal gangs. It is most conspicuously true of our passion for competitive sport. We are trained from childhood to look to the coach for authority in emergencies. The masterminding coach who can send in substitutes with instructions whenever he feels like it—or even send in an entirely new team—is a purely American phenomenon. In British football the team must play through the game with the same eleven men with which it started and with no orders from the sidelines; if a man is injured and forced to leave the field the team goes on playing with only ten men. In British sport, there are no Knute Rocknes or Connie Macks, whereas in American sport the mastermind is considered as an essential in the relentless pursuit of superiority.”

LeadershipAmerican DreamAmerican CultureRugged Individuality
Book:Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History
Create image

“The founders of America were more criminal than modern immigrants – you know why – because the founders of America didn’t only enter this land illegally, but after entering they drove the natives out of their own home, whereas all that the immigrants of today want is to have a better life for their family. Now tell me – who are the real criminals?”

American DreamAmerican HistoryUnited States Of AmericaRefugeeAmerican CultureRefugeesAmericanSystemic RacismIllegal ImmigrantsIllegal Immigration
Book:Generation Corazon: Nationalism is Terrorism
Create image

“In a country addicted to the virus of consumption, wealth, individualism, and judgement — be a person who is committed to the act of serving with love. To the act of spreading love. To serving with love. To uplifting with love. United we stand, divided we fall. Choose your part. Choose leadership. Be a leader, not a follower. You were born an original. Don’t die a copy. Freedom ain’t free and that just so happens to be the problem and the answer to the solution. All men are created equal but not treated equal. The only thing that is free is love, and love with conditions is not love. Liberty and life with conditions is not liberty and life. Ask more of your country and your countrymen. Protect all American’s rights to true freedom. Not the declaration of freedom but the actualization of freedom, which includes true liberty, true equality and the unconditional ability to pursue the highest virtues of life.”

LoveAmericaHappinessPatriotismIndividualismAmerican DreamConsumerismGritAmericanTrue Grit
Author:Drue Grit
Create image

“Venison stinks when you chew it, it stinks in your gullet. The putrid meat expands in your bowels, it constricts the intestines, it constricts the appetite—it murders you slowly, clogging your organs with its horrifying stink. It constricts the spirit, nothing but a foul and rotten meat that constricts the soul. But, of course, there is no soul, there can be nothing holy in us—there cannot be anything of heaven in us, because we are depraved, because we are no better than the foul venison. We are the meat that rots, the rotten meat on the bone, and we stink from birth until death, from when no soul is wrought to when no soul escapes.”

HuntingAmerican DreamVenison
Book:Everything Is Totally Fine
Create image

“She bewitches you," Trevanion said. "And she is yours for the taking. Any fool can see that. So take her and get whatever needs to be gotten out of your system." ... "Maybe you are right, Trevanion," he said, turning back to his father. "But it is her hope that bewitches me, and that hope I may never get out of my system, no matter how many times she's to be gotten. Can you not see it burning in her eyes? Does it not make you want to look away when you have none to give in return? Her hope fills me with... something other than this dull weight I wake with each morning.”

HopeFinnikinTrevanion
Book:Finnikin of the Rock
Create image