James Baldwin

It is very nearly impossible . . . to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

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.

If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, fire next time.

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hate so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.

A liberal: someone who thinks he knows more about your experience than you do.