It is impossible to pretend that you are not heir to, and therefore, however inadequately or unwillingly, responsible to, and for, the time and place….

Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated, and this was an immutable law..

All of us know, whether or not we are able to admit it, that mirrors can only lie, that death by drowning is all that awaits one there. It is for thi….

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience..

America sometimes resembles, at least from the point of view of a black man, an exceedingly monotonous minstrel show; the same dances, same music, sa….

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 e….

Tell me, he said, "What is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. what ….

It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your performance and survival-you do not exist. It….

Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give..

An American Negro, however deep his sympathies, or however bright his rage, ceases to be simply a black man when he faces a black man from Africa..

There exists among the intolerable degraded, the perverse and powerful desire to force into the arena of the actual those fantastic crimes of which t….

The white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross..

Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it..

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have..

Our dehumanization of the Negro then is indivisible from our dehumanization of ourselves; the loss of our own identity is the price we pay for our an….

If I could make you stay, I would,’ he shouted. ‘If I had to beat you, chain you, starve you—if I could make you stay, I would.’ He turned back into ….

You're getting to be a big boy,' I said desperately, 'it's time you started thinking about your future.' 'I'm thinking about my future,' said Sonny, ….

An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or when the stranger enters ….

Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore.

To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity..

One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return..