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James Baldwin

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

Education

related quotes

" Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up. "

Love

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

Love

" If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him. "

God , Love

" Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. "

Death , Life

" For I am‚Äîor I was‚Äîone of those people who pride themselves in on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision and carry it through. This virtue, like most virtues, is ambiguity itself. 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. Their decisions are not really decisions at all‚Äîa real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named‚Äîbut elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not. This is certainly what my decision, made so long ago in Joey‚Äôs bed, came to. I had decided to allow no room in the universe for something which shamed and frightened me. I succeeded very well‚Äîby not looking at the universe, by not looking at myself, by remaining, in effect, in constant motion. "

Decision , Life

" Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go. "

Inspirational

" Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition. "

Attachment

" It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death-- ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us. "

Death , Life

" Whose little boy are you? "

Church , Black

" The universe, which is not merely the stars and the moon and the planets, flowers, grass and trees, but other people, has evolved no terms for your existence, has made no room for you, and if love will not swing wide the gates, no other power will or can. And if one despairs-- as who has not?-- of human love, God's love alone is left. "

Religion , God , Love

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

Courage , individuality

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

Education

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