To be with God is really to be involved in some enormous, overwhelming desire, and joy, and power which you cannot control, which controls you.
James Baldwin
Spirituality, Divine power, Faith, Emotional surrender, Transcendence, Divine connection
James Baldwin’s Quotes On Topics
Emotional Struggle | Artistic Journey | Creative Drive | Social Unity | Human Actions | Film Influence | Self-Reflection | Success Factors | Artistic Truth | Pride In Diversity | Behavior Analysis | Heartache | Vulnerability | Human Fallibility | Learning From The Past | Harsh Reality | Relationship Building | Power And Purity | Creative Purpose | Bad Taste | More
More James Baldwin Quotes
“So what can we really do for each other except – just love each other and be each other’s witness? And haven’t we got the right to hope – for more? So that we can really stretch into whoever we really are?” James Baldwin
Love and Support, Hope and Aspiration, Human Connection, Personal Growth, Mutual Understanding
James Baldwin Love and Support, Hope and Aspiration, Human Connection, Personal Growth, Mutual Understanding“For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become. It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and, in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity.” James Baldwin
America, Home, Struggle, Perseverance, Hope, Legacy
James Baldwin America, Home, Struggle, Perseverance, Hope, Legacy“Color is not a human or a personal reality it is a political reality.” James Baldwin
Race and Politics, Social Constructs, Identity, Color and Perception, Cultural Reflection
James Baldwin Race and Politics, Social Constructs, Identity, Color and Perception, Cultural Reflection“The crime of which you discover slowly you are guilty is not so much that you are aware, which is bad enough, but that other people see that you are and cannot bear to watch it, because it testifies to the fact that they are not.” James Baldwin
Guilt, Self-Awareness, Judgment, Human Nature, Accountability
James Baldwin Guilt, Self-Awareness, Judgment, Human Nature, Accountability“The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.” James Baldwin
Questions, Introspection, Illumination, Experience, Understanding
James Baldwin Questions, Introspection, Illumination, Experience, Understanding“The relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of the others in order to end the racial nightmare and achieve our country.” James Baldwin
Racial awareness, Consciousness raising, Social change, Solidarity, Racial divide, Equality
James Baldwin Racial awareness, Consciousness raising, Social change, Solidarity, Racial divide, Equality“We take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet it is precisely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed.” James Baldwin
Reality, Betrayal, Human Condition, Dependence, Individuality, Societal Influence
James Baldwin Reality, Betrayal, Human Condition, Dependence, Individuality, Societal Influence“When the book comes out it may hurt you – but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself.” James Baldwin
Writing, Pain, Honesty, Self-Reflection, Shared Experience, Vulnerability
James Baldwin Writing, Pain, Honesty, Self-Reflection, Shared Experience, Vulnerability“And then, again, I was undergoing with my father what the very young inevitability undergo with their elders: I was beginning to judge him. And the very harshness of this judgement, which broke my heart, revealed, though I could not have said it then, how much I had loved him, how that love, along with my innocence, was dying.” James Baldwin
Father-Son Relationship, Judgment, Loss of Innocence, Emotional Growth, Family Dynamics
James Baldwin Father-Son Relationship, Judgment, Loss of Innocence, Emotional Growth, Family Dynamics“There is often something beautiful, there is always something awful, in the spectacle of a person who has lost one of his faculties, a faculty he never questioned until it was gone, and who struggles to recover it. Yet people remain people, on crutches or indeed on deathbeds...” James Baldwin
Loss, Struggle, Recovery, Resilience, Humanity
James Baldwin Loss, Struggle, Recovery, Resilience, Humanity“People said that he was very nice, but I confess that his utter grotesqueness made me uneasy; perhaps in the same way that the sight of monkeys eating their own excrement turns some people’s stomachs. They might not mind so much if monkeys did not- so grotesquely- resemble human beings.” James Baldwin
Grotesque behavior, Human nature, Discomfort, Animal comparison, Unnatural behavior, Emotional reaction
James Baldwin Grotesque behavior, Human nature, Discomfort, Animal comparison, Unnatural behavior, Emotional reaction“I wish I had heard him more clearly: an oblique confession is always a plea.” James Baldwin
Confession, Honesty, Communication, Vulnerability, Emotional truth, Clarity
James Baldwin Confession, Honesty, Communication, Vulnerability, Emotional truth, Clarity“I wanted to say so many things. Yet when I opened my mouth, I made no sound. And yet – I do not know what I felt for Giovanni. I felt nothing for Giovanni, I felt terror and pity and a rising lust.” James Baldwin
Emotional Conflict, Silence and Expression, Relationship Complexity, Inner Turmoil, Romantic Confusion, Fear and Desire
James Baldwin Emotional Conflict, Silence and Expression, Relationship Complexity, Inner Turmoil, Romantic Confusion, Fear and Desire“It was not only colored people who praised John, since they could not, John felt, in any case really know; but white people also said it, in fact had said it first and said it still. It was when John was five years old and in the first grade that he was first noticed; and since he was noticed by an eye altogether alien and impersonal, he began to perceive, in wild uneasiness, his individual existence.” James Baldwin
Racial identity, Childhood, Social perception, Recognition, Self-awareness, Race relations
James Baldwin Racial identity, Childhood, Social perception, Recognition, Self-awareness, Race relations“The impossible is the least that one can demand.” James Baldwin
Ambition, Challenges, Expectations, Goals, Perseverance
James Baldwin Ambition, Challenges, Expectations, Goals, Perseverance“This lack of what may roughly be called social paranoia causes the American writer in Europe to feel – almost certainly for the first time in his life – that he can reach out to everyone, that he is accessible to everyone and open to everything. This is an extraordinary feeling. He feels, so to speak, his own weight, his own value.” James Baldwin
Cultural Identity, Writing, Social Paranoia, Connection, Expatriates
James Baldwin Cultural Identity, Writing, Social Paranoia, Connection, Expatriates“Experience is a private, very largely speechless affair.” James Baldwin
Experience, Silence, Reflection, Individuality, Private Affairs
James Baldwin Experience, Silence, Reflection, Individuality, Private Affairs“When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living.” James Baldwin
Life, Habit, Reflection, Growth, Change, Consciousness
James Baldwin Life, Habit, Reflection, Growth, Change, Consciousness“You smiled at me the way you smiled at everyone, you told me what you told everyone – and you tell nothing but lies. What are you always hiding? And do you think I did not know when you made love to me, you were making love to no one? No one! Or everyone – but not me, certainly. I am nothing to you, nothing, and you bring me fever but no delight.” James Baldwin
Deception, Love, Pain, Lies, Heartache
James Baldwin Deception, Love, Pain, Lies, Heartache