Top 57 Quotes by James A. Baldwin

Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it.

Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

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

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.

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.

The writer's greed is appalling. He wants, or seems to want, everything and practically everybody, in another sense, and at the same time, he needs no one at all.

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.