It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.
James A. BaldwinRead
The purpose of education...is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education empowers individuals to think independently and make their own choices.
This quote by James A. Baldwin emphasizes the essential role of education in cultivating personal autonomy and critical thinking. Rather than merely absorbing information, the true purpose of education is to enable individuals to evaluate the world around them and form their own judgments, leading to stronger decision-making skills and personal growth.
Themes
EducationIndependenceDecision-MakingCritical ThinkingPersonal Growth
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, to inspire students about the value of their educational journey.
More from James A. Baldwin
All quotes βThe white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross.
James A. BaldwinRead
Those kids aren't dumb. But the people who run these schools want to make sure they don't get smart: they are really teaching the kids to be slaves.
James A. BaldwinRead
Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.
James A. BaldwinRead
The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black.
James A. BaldwinRead
The trick is to love somebody.... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently.
James A. BaldwinRead
Similar quotes
Let no man despise the oracles of books! A book is a dead man, a sort of mummy, embowelled and embalmed, but that once had flesh and motion and a boundless variety of determinations and actions.
William GodwinRead
Children feel the whiteness of the lily with a graphic and passionate clearness which we cannot give them at all. The only thing we can give them is information-the information that if you break the lily in two it won't grow again.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
There is no remedy so easy as books, which if they do not give cheerfulness, at least restore quiet to the most troubled mind.
Mary Wortley MontaguRead
I think you can be taught to write. You can't be taught to be a good writer. For that, you have to bring something to it, yourself, something that can't be given to you.
James SalterRead
All the sciences came to exist in Arabic. The systematic works on them were written in Arabic writing.
Ibn KhaldunRead
Our task - and the task of all education - is to understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices.
E. F. SchumacherRead