Top 57 Quotes by James A. Baldwin

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

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.

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

There is a 'sanctity' involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it.

Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings.

The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.

There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.

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

Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned.

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.