James Arthur Baldwin Quotes

The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment.

James Arthur Baldwin

The price one pays for pursuing a profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

James Arthur Baldwin

No one can possibly know what is about to happen it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time.

James Arthur Baldwin

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

James Arthur Baldwin

Europe has what we do not have yet, a sense of the mysterious and inexorable limits of life, a sense, in a word, of tragedy. And we have what they sorely need a sense of life's possibilities.

James Arthur Baldwin

To defend one's self against fear is simply to ensure that one will, one day, be conquered by it fears must be faced.

James Arthur Baldwin

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.

James Arthur Baldwin

The price we pay when pursuing any art or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

James Arthur Baldwin

You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way ... people look at reality, then you can change it.

James Arthur Baldwin

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

James Arthur Baldwin