James A. Baldwin Life Quotations

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have some sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be. The question is not what we can do now for the hypothetical Mexican, the hypothetical Negro. The question is what we really want out of life, for ourselves, what we think is real.

Life is more important than art; that's what makes art important.

I'm beginning to think that maybe everything that happens makes sense. Like, if it didn't make sense, how could it happen?

Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience you must find yourself at war with your society.

If you think too far ahead, if you even try to think too far ahead, you'll never make it.

To defend oneself against a fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.

People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.