James Baldwin

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid - the state of being alone.

Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.

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

Children have never been any good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled.

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.

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

The future is like heaven - everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.