American - Novelist | August 2, 1924 - December 1, 1987
People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.
James Baldwin
PeopleTreatBackBreadHumanMust
The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.
ExperienceWorldKeyQuestionsBegin
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.
HopePeopleThinkBetterRaceHuman
The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions.
PowerManWorldBlackWhiteAccept
American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.
BeautifulHistoryAmericanSaidMore
Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
HeartDangerousNobodyMorePurity
Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.
NothingMoreThanFrighteningCrutch
No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.
CulturePeoplePriceWithoutHeavy
A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.
ChildHimCannotFooledWhoTaught
The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.
LoveGlorySpiritMostAttracted
Europe has what we do not have yet, a sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need: a sense of life's possibilities.
LifeLimitsPossibilitiesTragedy
Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.
BornGoChangesThroughUsChanged
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