"Notes of a Native Son" Quotes
A collection of poignant essays exploring race, identity, and society in America by acclaimed writer James Baldwin.
nonfiction | 192 pages | Published in NaN
Quotes
The impossible is the least that one can demand.
People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.
I imagine that 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.
The root of the black man’s hatred is rage, and he does not so much hate other men as the designs of men.
No, I have never seen any reason to suppose that a human life is more important than a blackbird’s, or that man is more important than a cockroach.
It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them.
The power to define the other seals one’s definition of oneself.
The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.
It is not a romantic matter. It is the unutterable truth: all men are brothers.
The primary distinction of the very poor is that they are invisible, and what the very poor need and what the very rich need are the same: a solid and determined, almost aggressive, ignorance.
