Commemorating an advocate for equality, love, and freedom. Here are some James Baldwin quotes that encapsulate inspiring thoughts about life and help us bring closer to humanity.
James Baldwin ( (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an eminent author and activist who had enduring ideas about society and liberty. His plays, essays, and novels offered a thoughtful analysis of race and identity in America. Some of his finest works include No Name in the Street (1972), The Fire Next Time (1963), and The Devil Finds Work (1973).
He spent his life facing discrimination for his race, sexuality, and upbringing, but it still didn’t stop him from actively using his voice to inspire millions to fight for change. So, in order to celebrate his legacy and words of wisdom, below are some James Baldwin quotes and sayings.
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30 + James Baldwin Quotes And Sayings
James Baldwin was an influential and creative author, and these quotes truly express his wisdom and thought process.
Best James Baldwin Quotes On Love
1. “If love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can.”
2. “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
3. “Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is growing up.”
4. The trick is to love somebody… If you love one person, you see everybody else differently.
5. “Neither love nor terror makes one blind: indifference makes one blind.”
6. “Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
7. “The face of a lover is unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment.”
8. “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”
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Inspirational James Baldwin Quotes About Freedom
9. “Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be.”
10. “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
11. “Trust life, and it will teach you, in joy and sorrow, all you need to know.”
12. “I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.”
13. “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.”
14. “The purpose of education…is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.”
15. “Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society.”
16. “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
17. “For nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.”
18. “Perhaps the turning point in one’s life is realising that to be treated like a victim is not necessary to become one.”
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