People can cry much easier than they can change. James A. Baldwin on change
The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. James A. Baldwin on education
Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black. James A. Baldwin on education
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others. James A. Baldwin on experience
The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide. James A. Baldwin on failure
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. James A. Baldwin on fear
There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment the time is always now. James A. Baldwin on future
The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now. James A. Baldwin on future
Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. James A. Baldwin on good
People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. James A. Baldwin on history
American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it. James A. Baldwin on history
I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all. James A. Baldwin on history
Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings. James A. Baldwin on hope
The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. James A. Baldwin on knowledge
Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war love is a growing up. James A. Baldwin on love
Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. James A. Baldwin on love
I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. James A. Baldwin on love
Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? James A. Baldwin on love
Fires can't be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks. James A. Baldwin on men
Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did. James A. Baldwin on money